Quick report
Overall, my touring partner and I did not observe signs of instability. While our compression test results were negative, it was easy to move our column of snow off older storm snow from this last system - not the high pressure system crust. We opted to dig a second time to re-test for failure in the snowpack, and again had no results. The snow from the last week or so has begun to consolidate into a heavier slab where solar effect took place today. In shaded areas, the snowpack remained a bit softer and less consolidated. While traveling through steeper, more shaded and westerly facing aspects, we did note subtle cracking of the wind slab layer near switch backs. The wind slab was small - roughly 2-4 inches. This was not replicated during our descent. Generally a rather lovely day in the alpine!