Eldorado Pass

While I didn't find the most glaring signs of persistent slab instability, my suspicions remain raised. Poor snowpack structure abound and not healing anytime soon. While I was out, I also encountered another party who had been in the zone for a few days. They reported 8in of new snow total over the last three days. They said they experienced some whumpfing on an open southerly slope but had unremarkable results in all their snowpit tests. They continued to keep the skiing mellow and primarily skied southerly aspects (and had a lot of fun from the sound of it!). I was also treated to some excellent skiing upon my descent in mellow treed terrain. 

I observed small wet loose and very small dry loose avalanches. The wet loose avalanches likely released yesterday. I was able to get a bit of cracking to go in some wind affected snow. I experience a few localized whumpfs primarily near trees as I descended.

At the road where I parked my sled (about 4000'), there was about 5in/13cm of new snow, which quickly increased to more than 1 foot by 4500'. The new and recent snow is all still very soft and unconsolidated at all elevations where it has not been wind affected. Previous wind affect created harder and variable surfaces at ridgeline. I observed cornice development facing both directions off the ridgeline.

I dug a pit on an east aspect at 6169 ft. The depth of the snowpack at this location was 95in/240cm and the depth of my pit was 53in/135cm. I found 13in/33cm of soft new and recent snow overlaying a thick layer of equally soft facets (JDL). These facets rested on a very thin pencil hard 01/10 melt freeze crust. I found faets and more crusts the rest of the day down. A quick shovel tilt test gave very easy then easy results within the layer of new/recent snow (STV, STE). I performed a compression test and got a moderate sudden collapse result within the same layer (CT17, SC). I performed an extended column test and got a moderate, non-propagating result at the same interface with the same layer (ECTN17). A propagation saw test at the new/recent snow and facet interface did not propagate (PST50/100, SF).

I dug another smaller pit on a west aspect at 6286 ft. The depth of the snowpack at this location was 59in/151cm and the depth of my pit was 40in/101cm. I found 9in/22cm of new/recent snow overlaying a thick crust/facet complex. Below this was more layers of softer facets and hard crusts. A quick shovel tilt test gave an easy result at the new/old snow interface (STE). I performed a compression test and got a moderate sudden collapse at the same interface (CT17, SC).