Spicier Than Expected

We got halfway up Ledge Couloir (1640m) and were surprised to find the snow change all of a sudden halfway up from pretty solid to a 40-50cm cohesive slab on top of loose dry snow. the change was noticeable immediately as we sunk in much further. We moved off to the side of the line and dug a pit. CTE5 @ 6 cm, Sudden Planar; CTM14 @ 51 cm, Sudden Planar. Compression test failed about 6cm down at 5 from wrist (wind layer we had been monitoring) but then also failed at about 45cm down after 4 from the elbow. It failed at the interface between the thick slab and loose dry snow beneath. Given the moderate test result we turned around and skied the trees the rest of the day. The upper elevations in the Sky Pilot zone definitely seem more consistent with the S2S avy bulletin rather than the South Coast. Stuff had been moving yesterday during the snow but debris and crowns had been largely buried already so it was hard to tell what was going on. Above 1650m everything looked eerily still with no debris or crowns. Everything below treeline seemed well settled with no signs of instability. Moving around the alpine there were somewhat touchy isolated wind slabs, as expected.