Light east wind, air temp 14 deg F at pit location.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum NE chute
We toured up on the Sunburst side of Taylor Creek, crossed the creek at the bench and travelled up the skin-track on the NW face of Magnum and back to a NE chute at 2800′.
Weather
Snow surface
Snow depth up-track ranged from 80 cm at the Taylor Creek bench to 160 cm on NW side of Magnum. Surface conditions were mixed with pockets of ~5 cm thick windslabs underneath 5-10 cm of powder snow. Skiing down the NE chute offered spots of soft snow mixed with supportable windslab.
Snowpack
We dug a pit at 2800' on NE aspect in one of the first chutes (36 deg slope angle). Snow pit : HS 140 cm, surface 5 cm fist soft powder over 25 cm 1F-P hard slab, over 1 cm facets, over 15 cm P crust, on top of 1 cm facets. Bottom 55 cm consisted of variable P hard melt-freeze + facets (weird mix). We did two compression tests (CT23 (SC) down 60 cm on facets below the 15 cm mid-pack crust, and CTN).