While attempting the North Ridge of Mount Hardisty we encountered a deeper then anticipated snow pack at treeline. Above 2000m much of snowfall from September has remained, and with continued accumulation through the start of October the snow pack has characteristics of what we would find in mid November. During our travels we found wind loaded features that were supportive to boot travel. In isolated pockets these wind slabs would fail on a weak facet crust interface about 20-40cm down, resulting in whumphs, cracking and one small slab release.

Though much valley is still green, the snowpack quickly piles up with little elevation gain.