We dug hand pits and felt a frozen layer 4 to 5 inches down. We felt a little unsure about our skin up and as we got higher we saw a cracking of our skin track.It became more apparent the higher we went that it might break off the top 5 inch slab. At this point we felt it was time to stop and go no higher. Put skis on and did a ski cut to release the snow. It broke out about 80 feet wide and ran maybe 800 feet down. only the new super dense 5 inches moved. After the ski cut we skied the snow that just slid to the bottom.