Bullion Basin, Crystal Mountain 061202

I was very curious to get a look at the structure of the snowpack, since it has been an interesting week for Washington State weather, with heaps of snow and very cold weather. Since I was traveling alone, I was very cautious about which slopes I was willing to travel on, let alone to ski.
I chose to dig a pit in a less than ideal spot at 5370ft. It was closer to the trees than I would have liked but I did not want to stop in an avalanche chute and was hyper aware of the sun hitting the steeper slopes above me. The pit itself was a great learning experience for me and I made some errors.
It was the first Rutschblock test and the first Shovel Shear test of the season, both of which were done incorrectly. I will update that a little later in the week about how they were done and how they will be done in the future.
I found some nice hoar frost, which melted later in the day. Also, I found fairly cohesive snow bridging the weakness of the rain crust at 27 cm. In the upper layers there were a couple of failures with a RB4 at 112cm and 126cm, neither of which concerned me much and were stiffening up as the day went on.
I dug a hasty pit at 6400 ft with an E expose. It showed even stiffer snowpack at about 120 and less of a crust with greater cohesion. The sun was also further consolidating the surface snow. I skied this exposure all day without incident.
Perhaps most interestingly, at least 25 people passed within 5 meters of me doing my full observations, only three two stopped to ask me what I had found. This is a bit distressing. Thanks to Troy for helping my on my Rutschblock.