Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
We encountered a variety of snowpacks as we skinned up the snow fields to the ridge. We were able to stay on 25 degree slopes with limited time exposed to the smaller steeper pitches at the ridge. After we broke out of the trees between Main Gully and the South Snow Fields, we dug down to the Jan melt freeze rain crust mess. The snowpack was up right from the crust to the surface. There was about 130cm of snow on top of the crust. About half way up still on a 25 degree slope we got some cracking. I pulled three hand shears over about 100 yards of skin track all broke on isolation about 50cm down. Which was concerning a fist hand hardness test confirmed an upside down snowpack. We achieved the ridge and dug. There was a total snow depth of 240cm. We dug about 130cm deep and did not find the Jan crust. There were some density shifts in the ridge line snowpack, but nothing as drastic as where I pulled my hand shear. We did an ECT and got an ECTN 23. We skied two laps on low angle slopes, the snow and the turns where great as was the ski down the GoS trail. My overall impression of stability is that it is very spacial, and difficult to read, I did not trust the steep slopes. Our mindset for the day was to keep it simple and enjoy a day in the mountains.