Cross Hill/Lower Gold Chord

We went seeking better snow quality, low angle terrain, and a shallower snowpack to assess the persistent slab problem. We were somewhat successful in finding parts of all of those things. Travel conditions were mostly firm faceted snow on supportable surfaces all the way up to Cross Hill and Lower Gold Chord. So much terrain was hammered by the wind during the last storm 1/22-27. I'd venture to guess that winds were stronger than reported, considering the density of the snow (heavy) during the storm combined with the intensity and duration of the wind.  Although we've been enjoying cooler weather and are close to the return of our famous "square powder"...conditions are still dire for the hearty and effort is required to find good turns. 

We dug on a ESE aspect at 3900' with a height of snow of 90cm/35in. The snowpack here consists of a thick cohesive 1F to 4F to 1F slab and a F hard weak layer on top of the basal crust (see photo). In this location, despite being shallower, we did not have propagation with the ECT test. The weak layer in this location definitely gained strength during the warm wet storm 10 days ago with the basal facets and depth hoar rounding, becoming melt freeze grains, and now faceting once again. This unreactive test result was not surprising, but more information is needed and hopefully with be gathered by the end of the week to increase our confidence with this avalanche problem.