Observation: East Couloir

My tour today took me up Argenta which had maybe 4-5" of new snow at the bottom of the slide path and about 10" at the top above the W-NW facing shots into West couloir. I dug several quick hand pits on the way up and then did some digging at the top around 10,000. Snow structure was quite good and I was not able to easily identify any faceted layers below the new snow which I was concerned about. Snow seemed well bonded and had not stiffened into a slab and did not feel connected. I got to the top of Kessler and cut a small cornice into East Couloir. There had clearly been some loading into the chute but I wasn't able to get much to move with the cornice and felt good about riding the line based on observations made during the day. I ski cut the top of the line with no result and made a few turns into the chute. I triggered a shallow (6") wind slab about 100' down which ran the length of the chute to the apron below and rode the rest of the line without incident into Cardiff. Once I was in Cardiff I was surprised to see shallow natural slides on steep east and west facing terrain. Overall I was surprised by the sensitivity of the snow once I started riding compared to my hand/shovel pits and was also surprised by the natural activity which I did not observe on the N facing side of Argenta. I probably pushed it a little bit today, snow was fantastic but more sensitive than expected under foot. Photos include my shallow pit at the top, shallow natural in steep East facing Catchers Mitt and small skier triggered in East facing Cardiff near George's Bowl.