The Patrol Fund Level 1 course toured near Ghoulies today and conducted quick pits on North, East, and South aspects to observe the recent storm snow/old snow interface. We found consistent non-propogating results with moderate force in ECTs and CTs on all aspects with failure occuring ~45cm from the surface at the storm snow/old snow interface. We observed propogation in the northern pit with additional loading (hard force). The layer of concern appeared to be a thin layer of preserved stellars and hexagonal plates resting atop the old snow interface.
The total heights of snow for our three pits were 250cm, 175cm, and 225cm for the North, East, and South sites respectively (and all at approximately the same elevation).
We also observed light to moderate SW winds transporting small amounts of surface snow along the ridgetop and pronounced settlement cones around many fo the Ghoulies snow ghosts.
No recent avalanches, no shooting cracks, and no collapses were noted during our tours and we chose to avoid exposure to avalanche terrain today given the current avalanche hazard.
