Felt spooky, but...

Things felt a little spooky first thing in the morning, with high winds on the valley floor and sporadic, hollow feeling wind crusts in places as we headed up the ridge. The wind died down as we gained elevation, and the crusts became much less frequent. An ECT on the NE face just above 1900m showed no results. Finally was able to force a failure on the January crust layer (down 40cm at this location) after nearly 50 hard shoulder "taps", but even then the layer only crumbled slightly and remained fairly supportive. No planar failure or propagation occurred. Still worth being cautious in heavily wind affected areas, as this layer will have developed differently than in this somewhat sheltered test location. Skiing was excellent boot top powder, though the new snow is noticeably thinner at low elevations and you can feel the January crust about 5-10cm down. Stay high and in sheltered terrain for best results.