Quake Lake

We skied south of Quake Lake today, and found stable conditions. I observed one collapsed cornice from several days ago that had tumbled down a ~35 degree, east-facing slope at 9400' without triggering anything below it. A pit at ~8400' was 115 cm deep and showed a pretty thoroughly rotten, weak snowpack. We found no reactivity in an ECT, but I could get a shear about 15 cm down on a 1-2 cm layer of lower-density facets. We felt comfortable traveling and skiing in avalanche terrain, but the snow is so faceted near the surface that it can be difficult to sidehill on anything steep--the top of the snowpack feels more like sand than snow, and skis like it, too. I encountered similar conditions skiing above Hebgen Lake yesterday, and anticipate this snowpack to be reactive if it ever snows again.