Compression Test near St. Mark's Summit

Riding quality was:

Terrible

Due to the rain and snow combination the evening before there was a hard crust on soft snow, with a layer of light snow on top of the crust. The layer of light snow on top, and the thickness of the crust varied depending on slope angle, orientation, and tree coverage.

We dug a pit at about 1305 m (depending on the accuracy of my watch) at 14:00 not far from the St. Mark's summit. The slope was SE facing (125-130 degrees) and a 42 degree slope angle. The snow depth varied from 180 to 190 cm. The snow was right side up (thick crust about 105 cm, getting softer and looser closer to the surface) until you reached 2 thin crusts at approx 3 cm and 14 cm in depth.

We dug out a first column but weren't happy with the shape so we preformed a quick compression test more intended to destroy it than record anything, however we did get some results, the most concerning was a planar fracture on the 105 cm crust. We were unable to reproduce this during our second column but a somewhat similar result occurred when we were filling in the pit after we had finished by stomping above it on skis. both times the results required a more considerable amount of force.

During the actual compression test we had an E3Q1 (drop and pop) result on the newest thin crust approx 3 cm deep, another M15Q2 planar result on the crust 14 cm deep, and an incomplete fracture (didn't propagate across the entire column) at H27 55 cm deep.

Despite our test results we did not see many signs of instability during touring or skiing. There was point release debris down gullies during our approach though I don't know how old.