Tumalo Snow Pit

Warm clear day on Tumalo.  Found about an inch or less of surface hoar on top of variable crust/powder as we skinned up from Dutchman.  Dug a snow pit on the southern end of the skier area just inside the bowl.  Two weeks ago I found severe wind scour in the bowl leaving a MF rime ice crust exposed.  After the recent storm I wanted to dig down to that crust and check stability.  The crust was a full 40" below the new snow surface.  I found that the bond between the ice crust and the new snow was strong probably because the snow came in so wet at the beginning of the storm.  The CT confirmed this as the fracture was above the ice.  The fracture was planar (Q2) and broke at 15 loading steps but took the full 30 loading steps to slide.  The snow in the bowl skied like packed powder.  Noticed sastrugi on the leeward slide of the usual cornice area.  Found some creamy corn snow on the SW slope at about 1pm.  Good day!