Sluice/Right Gully

Went into Tuckerman Ravine to check out the distribution of current wind loaded snow to see the surface that new snow will be falling on to. Early hand shears in wind protected areas were 2 inches in size and very sensitive on a graupel and rimed layer. As we climbed to higher elevations in the Ravine, found hand shears to become more and more stubborn. The depth of the new snow was very variable, ranging from scoured, to 2 inches, to 2 feet in depth. We dug in SE aspects to the lookers right of Sluice and the lookers left of Right Gully. To the right of Sluice at an elevation of 4760 ft found the new snow to be 14 cm in depth with 2 cm of 4F and the remaining 12 cm of 1F. The greatest sensitivity we found was to the lookers right of Sluice and walking we found some isolated cracking. An ECTN11 showed visible cracking underneath the shovel 14 cm down on the melt freeze layer. A shovel shear of this block showed a very clear shear on a graupel layer, interestingly the whole column stayed intact and was moderately stubborn to remove. I chose to climb higher to look at a slightly deeper snow in the same location about 20 feet higher. Here the newly deposited snow was more like 20 cm in depth and was on a thinner sun crust layer. An ECT here was an ECTN12. Upon falling this block showed distinct differences in HH with more rimed snow found in-between. A CT14 was the result we found closer to Right Gully. In this location the new snow was deeper as it was in a wind protected spot. The CT failed on the same graupel/melt freeze crust that we found results in closer to Sluice. Saw a lot of graupel pouring down the headwall in our time as well as some wind loading.