Cement Basin

It was a nice morning for a walk to the top of East Peak and over into Cement Basin. Signs of the wind were easy to spot - blowing snow, textured surfaces, new drifts, filled in skin tracks, sensitive cornices... The variability in depth of the upper snowpack was also obvious while traveling. Sometimes you would feel the crust, othertimes it would seem "bottomless". 

I spotted a handful of small avalanches, triggered one, and pushed some snow that ran easily on a subtle crust. Winds were reverse loading the ridgelines, but the snow skied great in sheltered locations.

Localized cracking of the surface in wind-affected snow while breaking trail or skiing. Small avalanches were observed, both human and naturally triggered. I was able to push loose snow on a steeper slope. It ran on an underlying crust. Plus there was a legit cornice collapse.

The upper snowpack is a bit variable, but generally speaking this week's storm snow overlays numerous interfaces, above the AR curst. The depth and number of interfaces varies due to aspect and elevation. Some areas are obviously stronger than others. 

The AR crust is not as strong in the Cement Basin area as I have seen in other locations recently. In fact, in one of my pits (E 5940'), there was a facet-crust sandwich which failed and propagated in an extended column test. ECTP17SC / CT8SC

In most locations, there is a storm interface from this week, roughly 20 cm below the surface, that failed easily in all tests - tilt, shear, hand pits, small column, large column. In one pit, it propagated, in the other, it failed but did not propagate all the way across the block, just roughly 3/4 of the way.  CT3, ECTP4, ECTN3

There's plenty of wind-effect out there, furthering the variability of the upper snowpack.