Near Mt. Abundance

GNF Snow Ranger Brad Bolte took this photo of their snowpit on the bench below Mt. Abundance outside Cooke City. 32 degree slope on a SSE aspect.  Facets 23 inches off the ground are not breaking easily which is a sign of strengthening. Compare this to the snowpit Brad dug 10 days ago on Jan 20 (in the "Photos") when this layer broke with 9 taps.  Photo by Brad Bolte