Avalanche: Chugach State Park

Area is heavily wind affected. Observed snowpack depths ranging from bare to 4’+. While ascending observed localized collapsing and shooting cracks when crossing wind loaded terrain above 2200″. In a column test the wind loaded snow (~8cm) reacted at 6 taps from wrist and another reactive layer at 20cm collapsed at 28. The wind loaded snow slid easily on a planner surface. The 20cm reactive layer was a crust on facets, facets showed some signs of sintering and held together better than what I observed on 12/12 however I would still consider them loose. Beneath that the snowpack was a layer cake of firm and loose snow but different layers were observed in different locations on the same slope. Some layers offered little resistance to a fist while the layer on top of the 20cm facets was very resistant to one finger. Most concerning was another layer of rounded facets at ~40cm showing some signs of sintering and did not react until I pulled the block out to look at it. Test slope was measured at 25⁰.