Quick report
Drove truck to ~3000', Took tracked SxS to Horton Ridge parking lot at ~5800', skied from there to 7,100+'. Snowline started about 3800'. With high clearance and good tires/chains a guy could get up another few hundred feet and a couple of miles further. The fog was thick and the snow surface was firm. Light breeze. Not a day I should have forgotten my ski crampons, but I poked my way up to a couple hundred feet from the summit. Traction and fog stopped me at that point. I dropped down to about 6,800' to dig a pit. Total snow was 62", 32 degree slope, SSE aspect. I only dug down through the first 30" as there were some super stiff layers and I've got a bad wrist. The surface had a 1/4" of wet snow, then a 2+cm frozen rain crust that was super hard (couldn't punch an edge through) Under that crust was 4" (~10cm) of P/K hardness, down to a 5cm crust. Under that crust was 4" of P- hard snow down to a 2cm crust. Under this crust was 8cm of 1F snow to the next crust. This crust went 13" to the bottom of my profile. It felt like this crust continued, possibly to the ground. ECT test showed no results (ECTX). Being an old-school guy, I turned it into a shovel shear test and got the layer about 15" down to shear cleanly and with some energy, with moderate effort. The next shear was at 27" and was a 10" slab, but was a very hard pull to get it to shear. I knew there was another crust layer, but it only showed itself after a beating with my shovel. All shears were clean. Summary: While warm weather and moisture have certainly moved through the entire snow pack throughout this early season, I was expecting a soggy pack, not a frozen block. The shears showed the failure was maybe some old buried surface hoar or simply different faceting. The photo shows their 'puffy' nature versus the usual expanding facets. Not sure. Bottom line: I think these crust layers will be with us for a long time unless warm moisture takes them out or they simply rot out over time. A skier is unlikely to trigger these right now, although a sled or snow bike could definitely find a sweet spot in the wrong location. Not enough visibility to see the surrounding peaks for avy evidence.