Observations from Elephant's Back

Pic 1: Surfaces exposed to wind were a mix of firm sastrugi and old rain crust. Recent rain crust in this area was very thin and breakable (pic 2).

Pic 2: On slopes sheltered from wind, 20-30cm of soft snow with a double crust/facet combo. In some places these crusts were right next to each other, as pictured, and in others they were about 10cm apart from each other. Facets in between the two crusts were more developed where the crusts were close to each other.

Pic 3: Minimal cracking on wind loaded test slope. Cracks didn't travel far nor deep.

Pic 4: On the old Red Lake Rd, surface hoar on the surface.

Video: I intentionally looked for hard wind slab on facets similar to last Sunday's avalanche on Frog Lake Ridge, and found it easily on the shoulder of Elephant's Back (pin drop). I probed in several places above the mid-slope bench, and found similar layering. On 12/19, the facets were Fist hard (not 4 Finger as I said in today's video), and today they were just harder than 4 Finger. PST did not show propagation was likely, and the slab above was very hard to dig through.