Sphinx

We dug a pit at the base of the west face of Sphinx Mountain at ~9250ft. The recent snow was gently wind loaded into the couloir creating soft, isolated wind slabs. This layer did not propagate in our test (HS 160, ECTN 18 @ 20cm). Despite this, we noted that some propagation occurred in isolated areas on the skin track. The most concerning layer in the snowpack was at 70cm. We found ~20cm thick layer of Pencil hardness above softer (1F to 1F-) snow. This layer did not react in an ECT but, with a hard shovel shear, popped off cleanly.