Along the the east ridge of Mt. Raymond we noticed huge variability in the thickness and strength of the rain/rime crusts.  At times there were two crusts, each about 1/2 inch thick, with about 1/2 inch between them, and just 10 feet a way there would be just one solid crust about 11/2 inch thick.  Pits along the ridge, all on SE aspects, were showing preserved facets below the 2nd crust.  The uppermost crust (when there was two) was the weakest.  On our way up the ridge we were also getting several large collapses.  At first we wrote these off as possibly just the upper crust collapsing onto the 2nd.  However, we were also getting collapsing in areas where there was just the single, very stout crust.  Near the top of the ridge, the collapsing was accompanied by shooting cracks that were propagating about 30 feet.  The longest cracks were in areas with the stoutest crust, and included the crust and the faceted snow below.  We debated whether the lack of a cohesive slab above the crust made the cracks somewhat irrelevant, but basically the crusts were behaving as a slab and as the last 2 large shooting cracks arched out into the top of starting zones, we decided enough was enough and headed to a different aspect.  All collapses were on SE aspects, between 9800 and 10,000 feet, similar to the cracking reported in the UFO bowls, in fact rereading that observation, the whole scenario seemed quite similar.