Went up Stryker again today. Went up the front side and still real thin down low. Up top is incredible riding. Great snow and lots of traction, but still fluff on top. Dug a quick pit at 6,000, ne facing just to the north of “rock garden”, 150 cm total depth, pretty major crust and facets 45cm down. Didn’t have my ect cord with but did a shovel shear on an isolated column and it “popped” off. Pretty sketch. We had been playing it safe already throughout the day but that was confirmed that it’s not as safe as it seems.
Otherwise no naturals at all, nothing moving no cracking and overall pretty good riding. We stuck to mostly low angle stuff but did get in a few zones where it was steep and everything was staying put. I did see one small old debris pile down off the lake of the rock garden but it appeared to be maybe a week to 2 weeks old. 35-40’ slope north facing 6200’.
Heavy snowfall when we left, 1-2” per hour, started around 2 pm. Wind was barking on the west slope swirling but didn’t seem near as strong once we got on top
