Mt. Glory

Another observation about the ice crust that's been identified in the southern Tetons near the Pass and JHMR... We dug off Mount Glory on a NE facing slope at 9,800'. The ice crust is buried down about 40 cm from the surface. Out of curiosity, we did two separate ECTs. One where we isolated the entire column and the other where we only cut down until we hit the crust. The isolated column produced an ECTP 11 on the November drought interface (75 cm down). The test where we only isolated the snow above the crust produced an ECTN 12 that failed ~5cm above the crust. It's tempting to think that the crust is promoting stability in places where it is thick, however, this is not the case. It is simply providing enough strength to mask some obvious signs of instability. Multiple human triggered avalanches breaking in weak layers deeper than the crust are proof of this (see attached photo).

The slab above the crust appears to be well bonded to the crust for the time being.