Hemlock Ridge behind June

Toured off the top of J7 at June Mtn this morning to Yost creek and up the Northerly side of Hemlock Ridge to check on new snow stability.  Low visibility(low clouds and snowing) pushed my thoughts of exploring the Negative cirque to another day.  To sum it up, no signs of instabilty found save for loose snow sloughs in steep terrain.  Suprisingly calm winds even at the exposed summit above tree line at 10,500'.  Couldn't find any wind slabs to speak of, but exposed NW ridge did have a bit less snow than sheltered areas (so some winds during the storm obviously moved some snow around). Ski patrol did not use exposives this morning, only ski cuts, with minimal sloughing results, no slabs.       

-20-35cm of new snow between 9000' and 10,500', right-side-up (fist plus toward the bottom to fist toward the top with mixed in graupel, and a thin layer of fist minus at the surface).  

-Dug a pit just shy of the summit on a norhterly facing slope to check layers.  See attached profile.  Variable ECT results, one did propogate on a density change mid-pack, but the result wasn't repeatable.    

-Great ski quality down to ~8800', then crust started to be felt progressively increasing to the road at 7600'.  Mostly quite supportable, but shallow.  Could tell where most obstacles are, so could pick way down to road cautiously but without too much difficulty.   

~2pm, 8000', north facing slope: the underlying snowpack below the new snow was slightly moist to the ground (and crust became grabby).  Total snowdepth=45cm, new snow=15cm.  Underlying snow exhibited signs of some faceting, but again, was moist.  Snowing 1-2cm/hr.