Thanks to the overnight freezing rainfall (3/10), all aspects were covered with ~10-15cm ice crust top layer that bonded poorly with the underlying layer of dry sugary snow. This top crust was very slabby and would propagate/crack into large chunks. Where I dug this pit, the secondary layer extended ~20cm down into a band of warm, wet mushy snow. I did not notice any other distinct banding in the snowpack other than that the remainder of the column consisted of the normal dry powder we have experienced from the last several storm cycles. The snowpack became harder and harder as I went down underneath the band of wet snow at 30cm below the surface.

An ECT was conducted and produced the following result: ECTN14

A slide was initiated but it did not propagate along the entirety of the column. The failure occurred ~30cm from the surface right where the banding of wet, heavy snow was noticed in the snowpack.

I performed this test on a 32 degree aspect that was definitely starting to warm in direct exposure to the sun. This was conducted at 11:30am so I am unsure as to how this face evolved later into the day. The skin track I normally follow on this route started to briefly pass through 30-35 degree terrain at this point and I personally decided to turn around after I felt a slight collapse when I attempted to test passing through it. I was by myself and while it was a beautiful day out, I decided I wanted to see many more in better conditions. Hard to let go of such a nice day but with no other bypass routes, it felt like a good learning experience.