Booby Traps and Landmines

Traveled into the Apgar Range for some baseline data. Made my way up McGee Creek in hopes of skiing some familiar glades, but red flags redirected the days itinerary.

• Morning started crystal clear before becoming overcast by mid day. Calm winds observed all day at low-mid elevations.
   
• Caught wind of my first Whumpf around 5000ft on a SW facing slope. The culpret is facets/surface hoar buried a foot or so beneath the surface. Gradually ascending the valley, I continued to hear more and more whumpfing, same weak layer.
   
• Bad news was that the glades I hoped to ski (30-35+ degrees, same aspect) were closed for the day. Good news was that feedback for this decision was easy to come by. Who needs intuition when you've got Red Flags?
   
• Not wanting to completely bail without taking a closer look at the pack, I redirected my route towards a less steep (20-30 degree) sub ridge that was moderatly timbered and searched for a good pit site.
   
• Whumphing continued again with the ocasional shooting crack. No cracks visably traveled further than 20 ft, but some of the whumphs jostled vegetation up to 100 feet away.
   
• Good pit sites were hard to come by and every single decent clearing collapsed upon approach. I eventually managed to tiptoe into one small opening without settlement and established a pit. Unfortunately it whumphed while measuring boot pen prior to my first stability test. I note this because I believe my test would have produced significantly touchier results otherwise.
   
• See pit profile graph attached for detailed structure. Snow depth- 34". South facing at ~6000 feet. Layer of concern- Surface hoar 16" below the surface. Test results- ECTP26 and ECTX.
   
• If tomorrow's forecast verifys, I'd bet that human triggered avalances are likely on southernlies. And if I had a dollar for every whumph I heard today, that would be a handsome bet.