Breakable rain crust below 9,000' on Relay Peak.

We traveled to the east ridge of Relay Peak today to look at the new rain crust and to evaluate wind slabs.

Rain crust from the Jan 1 rain event was thin and breakable in the range where we traveled it from 8,500' to 9,000'. In some areas it was exposed at the snow surface. In other more wind protected areas it was under a half inch of new snow. In this elevation range, this crust did not present complications to travel.

Getting above 9,000' we left the rain crust behind and got into terrain where the snow surface was heavily affected by the wind on all aspects. We saw some areas of mainly light blowing snow with some moderate blowing snow during gusts. Wind transport of snow was creating mainly downslope saltation rather than deposition as wind slabs. We encountered a few pockets of thin wind slab that was stubborn to unreactive with minimal cracking and only in previously undercut areas.

We dug a snowpit in below treeline terrain at 9400' on a north aspect.  The upper snowpack consists of a mix of near surface facets and stronger more dense snow layers.  All snowpack tests pointed to generally very good snow stability.