Although I did not quite have the time to safely dig the test pits 10km apart I am confident they are far enough apart to analyze spatial variability throughout a potential forecast zone. Test pits 1 and 2 were very similar to what I would expect of a lower elevation snowpack in meadows that get a decent amount of short wave radiation from the sun even though they are both on northerly aspects.. They both had several melt-freeze crusts that were indicative of a lower elevation snowpack and most instability tests for both of these pits were failing on basal facets from November, December, and possibly some early January snow. Test pit 1, though higher in elevation, had more melt-freeze crusts than test pit 2. I suspect this is from the slope angle and proximity to trees capable of emitting longwave radiation. Pit 1 was in a meadow surrounded by trees and a much less steep slope angle so absorbs more short wave radiation from the sun throughout the day time. Pit 2 was near trees to the west but no trees were close enough to affect it from any other directions and it was a more Northerly facing slope with a steep slope angle so less short wave absorption from the sun.

Test pit 3 was very different as I expected it to be, being a much higher elevation and opposite aspect than pits 1 and 2. I likely only dug deep enough to observe the late January, February, and March snow. From 290cm to 100cm the snow has settled and hardened forming a large cohesive slab on top of 30-50cm of basal facets that a discovered with my foot after falling through the bottom of my test pit. This tells me what the CAIC has been telling me about the avalanche problem on the advisory, hard to trigger deep persistent slab that will run large to historic if triggered. Since the first Feb. Storm cycle this area has been consistently getting loaded with snow so the layers haven’t had time to facet thus making this very large cohesive slab including all the snow from March Feb and possibly late Jan.