Quick report
Hiked up Cardiff to have a look at NE, E facing Ivory flakes. Dug some quick pits at about 10,000ft NE facing on a 30 degree slope. In two of the four pits I dug the column failed upon isolation, the other two popped out with barely a touch. Not going to throw a bunch of numbers and symbols at you, there are plenty obs with more complete pit profiles, but its pretty easy to see on the VIDEO how energetic the slab is and how clean the sheer is on facets underlying last weeks two storms. Photos, depth of the snow pack in Ivory, and the failure plain in the pit.
The theme of the day braking trail up Ivory Flakes was collapsing, and cracking, basically from when we left the main trail collapsing and cracking was constant until we reached our destination. Got a couple good ground shakers when we were all traveling closely together. Photos, deep crack going into old faceted snow. old slides from last week off the rock slabs, surface hoar growth.
Snowpack
Seems like the new storm snow slab is starting to break down a bit on the surface but in the areas traveled the slab is still cohesive and energetic. Surface hoar noted in the drainage bottoms, not so much on the slopes.