Beehive Obs.

Our avalanche course toured up to the west ridge in Beehive Basin.

We dug four side by side hasty pits on an east aspect at 8740'.

HS 115 cm

HST approx. 8-9 cm

ECTX x 4

We were on the hunt for buried surface hoar. With no fractures in our ECT's to help locate the layer, it's hard to say whether the layer was or wasn't present, but we couldn't find it. Other than a MFcr down 30 cm with some associated near-crust facets, the snowpack was largely right side up with F to 4F above the crust and 1F to P below all the way to ground.  Basal facets comprised the bottom 20 cm and were 1F to pencil hard.  

The new snow was not particularly well bonded to the old snow surface.

The other half of our group dug on a westerly aspect at approximately 8500' off of the east ridge and found buried SH down approximately 30 cm. It was clearly visible in their pit walls. ECTN's on the SH layer in their pits.