Mt Ellis

Got in my first tour of the year on Mt Ellis today! I dug a pit on an E/NE aspect at about 7650', and found 90cm of snow. I could not get anything to pop in a shear test, and an extended column had no result. The snowpack very gradually gained density from fist to 1F in about as nice of a gradient as I could hope to see. There was a ~5cm layer of slightly less dense 1-1.5mm facets right at the ground, but they were surprisingly moist and packable. When I finished my ECT, I pried at the back of the column and the whole thing tipped over, taking some dirt with it. This is my singular data point for the year, but my assessment of this small area is that the snowpack is fairly weak, but unstressed where there isn't any wind loading.