Kendall Peak

It was nice to see snow on the road and during the west side approach. Not enough for much hazard down low, but good to see that dirt covered up with roughly 4" in the parking lot. It was a quiet day on Kendall, with a few groups of skiers making the best of the new snow. Snow depth increased greatly as I ascended in elevation and became downright deep and fun skiing by the time I reached the top of Kendall Trees.  The weather was all over the place, but that's what you get during the spring. Convective showers delivered graupel/rimed precipitation particles at times, making for a soft snow surface.

By the time I exited the field around 1:00, it was pretty warm and the new snow depth was dwindling down low, but convective showers kept hammering during my drive down the west side with plenty of hail in North Bend. 

I observerd localized cracking of the surface while I traveled, especially on unsupported features or wind rolls. Natural avalanches were observered but had a few inches of snow covering the debris.

The snow surface was soft new snow from the car to my turn around spot near the top of the slide path. The depth of snow over the AR crust varies greatly, however. Under tree cover, at lower elevations, its only a few cms of snow. In the open at lower elevations, that increases to a handful of inches. Depth slowly increases as you ascend in elevation and as you change your exposure to tree cover and wind. I found as much as 2 feet of snow over the AR crust above ~4500 feet. 

When digging in the meadows near the top of the slide path, I got consistent failures at two interfaces. 

The 3/11 interface down 25cm CT3 ECTN4

The 3/9 interface down 35cm CT 16 ECTN28

Tilt and shear tests often failed at the 3/11, the AR crust was down 44cm and wasn't as stout as I had expected. Don't get me wrong, it's still stiff and likely a new ground, but I was able to easily dig through it and moist grains still exist in the vicinity.