Facets and Unconsolidated Snow on Silver Peak

The recent snow rested above an old crust with facets below it many areas on the northerly aspects of Silver Peak today. In most places anchors (aka rocks, stumps, and logs) protruded through the snowpack and prevented the facets from being continuous across large areas. Still, data and observations showed that they are losing strength even as the snow above them is becoming more slab-like. Two small skier triggered whumphs occurred while skinning up to the peak: one on a N aspect at 7000 ft. and another in a NE facing meadow at ~7300 ft. Neither of the collapses traveled more than 5 ft from my skis. Father up on the peak at 8000 ft. snowpit data corroborated these observations and tests targeting this layer yielded unstable results (see attached pit). The recent snow remains soft and unconsolidated and many barely covered obstacles still exist just below the surface.