Dug a couple of pits

Dug a couple of pits today on N, W and S aspect at tree line around 1200m, between 1st and 2nd knolls. Noticed a prominent rain crust at 30-35 cm depth. An ECT on 26deg slope resulted in sudden crack on 5th hit from wrist (see photos). Crack was just underneath rain crust. I’m guessing new snow has bonded well to crust, but layer underneath crust is weaker. Skied one pitch of open trees. Nice snow, some sluff that ran, but not too far. No shooting cracks, whoompfing, etc observed during skinning.

ECT test. Crack occurred on 5th from wrist and propagated along entire column.