Red Cone Bowl - W Face snowpit

Mellow tour up to Red Cone Bowl.  Unseasonably warm, mostly calm winds.  Snow surface was moist up to 9600' at 1pm, even on north facing aspects in widely spaced trees.  Above this sheltered N facing slopes snow surface was loose facets.  Above 10,000', Variable surfaces on exposed slopes from firm wind board on northerly, to pockets of loose intermixed with dense wind deposits on westerly.  Easterly slopes above 10,000' were moist.  Snowpit (attached) on westerly facing slope ~10,200' consisted of mostly rounded and rounded faceted particles with a couple melt-freeze crusts.  Extended column tests resulted in failure with hard force of a 10cm thick denser 1Finger+ surface windslab ontop of less dense 4finger layer of rounded facets, but did not come close to propogating (ECTN26, 28).  Did not encounter any stability concerns on this tour.  Thin, but with a little caution, quite adequate converage up to Lake George and above.  Occasional bare spot on the hiking side of tamarack x-country trails.