Middle Peak pit and stability tests

Yesterday we toured into Middle Basin to check out the new snow. It appeared that, throughout the day, wind shifted towards the south and wind loading was isolated to exposed sections of ridge line. Snow was falling at about 2cm/hour from 9-11am, and slowly reduced until skies began to clear around 2pm. Whiteout conditions kept us from heading to the summit of Middle Peak, and we stopped at the entrance of the “buttcrack” to check the snow. At our test location on the SE face of middle, just to the north of the entrance of the chute, wind loading was minimal and we observed ~ 5 inches of fresh snow. Our pit revealed a relatively upright snowpack. Stability tests pointed to a layer of concern at 60cm, where there was an interface between rounds and faceting rounds.