Island Alpine Guides, AST1 course Mt. Washington

temperature inversion, warmer at 1500 m than at 1100.

I expected a compression test result at the interface between old and storm snow (45cm down). Surprisingly however, there was a CT15 SP all the way down at 106cm (just 10 cm above ground) on crust & facet layer. This, I think was also the layer that provided us with two major whumpfs, one while at the pit and the second about 100 m further East on the ridge. When "burping" the column, the storm interface down 45cm sheared clear and easy, despite not having produced a compression test result (this made me think it might already be starting to bond pretty well). However, I would caution skiing any convex, unsupported open slopes due to this lower crust/facet combination that produced the whumpfs.