Fire Plug Mt. Rose

We skied fire plug this afternoon. 4-7 inches of unconsolidated snow existed on all areas that did not show signs of wind effect on the surface. We kicked at some cornices and wind loaded test slopes that had formed prior to this most recent snow on the N side of the ridge before skiing down. 2-3-foot cornices would fail with a couple kicks (Photo 1), however, jumping on small leeward test slopes did not result in and failure or cracking. We even undercut one by stomping in a skin track through the firmer wind deposit into softer snow, ~2 feet deep. Even after under cutting jumping on this test slope did not produce and significant cracks or clean breaks (Photo 2). A couple sections did crumble just below the firmer wind layer directly under my feet. It snowed gently through most of the tour with accumulation around 1 inch over 3 hours.