Observations from Echo Summit

Cold, low density snow observed above a supportable crust on shaded aspects. Some early stage faceting just above and below the crust about 6" below the surface. Sunny aspects had another crust forming at the surface. Large cornices at Becker/Talking cirque (pin drop) beginning to droop, but none had broken yet. 

Picture: Large SH on cold slopes exposed to the sky.

Video: On a low elevation (7500ft) E aspect, we tried to find shallowly buried facets to see if we could initiate them by hand in column tests. Consistent SP results with Compression Tests, but when we switched to Extended Column Tests we could not get the fractures to propagate. Very similar results yesterday at Elephant's Hump, where 12 or more CTs showed SP results, but none of our ECTs propagated.