Quick report
Location: Huntington Ravine floor up to 4700' in Damnation gully; Time: 0900-1000. P windboard with a wind sculpted surface from the 3-5/6 blow dominated the snow surface from the floor up to about 4300' below Damnation. Then the dominant surface shifted to 1F boot supportable (~3" penetration) windslab up to about 4600', and finally a slightly softer and upside down 1F over 4F with 6-8" boot penetration up to 4700'. We observed isolated pockets of new wind drifted snow from the previous 24hrs, 4F 2-8" deep, in climbers left side of the gully. A hand shear in one of these pockets revealed a stubborn but planar failure on the 3-5/6 bed surface. These pockets were isolated and easy to avoid. At 4700' we dug a pit on the right hand side of the gully and performed an ECT which yielded sudden planar failure upon isolation on a bed surface 80cm down. The windslab above the failure was fairly dense/homogenous, mostly 1F with some 4F- near the bottom. Upon a closer look, we noticed a rock just under the bed surface that likely acted as a weak point, contributing to the failure. Even though this windslab was skier supportable, we opted to turn around and ski out from here given the possible consequential combination of softer snow higher up in the gully as it got more sheltered and weak points in the shallow snowpack.