No Signs of Instabilities on Tamarack Peak

As we skinned up from the Tamarack pullout, the first thing we noticed was widespread feathery surface snow grains (surface hoar). 4 to 8 mm surface hoar existed on all but the sunniest S facing aspects up to at least the top of Tamarack Peak. Sending blocks of snow down a slope would collapse this surface hoar and leave a shiny track on the snow as if a snow snail had straight-lined a slope.

Below the surface, we found a well-consolidated snowpack. We dug a full snowpit and did several test pits, hand pits, and lots of probing with ski poles and probes. None of our snowpit tests produced unstable results (ECTN and PST 99/100 END in a sheltered location, 2x ECTN on wind-loaded test slopes). We ski cut and jumped on several wind-loaded test slopes and did not manage to produce any cracking deeper than about 10 cm (4in). The shallow cracks we did cause barely propagated out from our skis. We were able to break oven size cornice pieces off with easy ski kicks, but these also did not trigger any signs of instabilities in the slopes below them. 

Overall the top several cm's (few inches) of snow was soft and cold with supportable snow below that. 

Photo 1: Small inconsequential cracking on a wind-loaded test slope. The shiny track in front of my ski is not the track of a giant snow snail, but rather surface hoar that collapsed as a small cornice piece slide down the slope.

Photo 2: 4 to 8 mm surface hoar was present on most open slopes at all elevations. 

Photo 3: Settlement crack around the base of a tree.