Observation: Girdwood

Went out for a short afternoon tour and ended up following skin tracks heading onto 30 degree plus unsupported slopes. At this point, experienced some instability with cracking and hollow sounding snowpack. Things just didn’t feel right and headed back towards more protected terrain. Decided to dig a quick pit down 1 meter before continuing toward the summit. Had an immediate failure (CTV) on isolation in the top 9 inches of snow failing on a crust layer. However, subsequent extended column test had no result (ECTX). I didn’t have a snow saw to make cuts, therefore I used did a ski pole. Maybe the reason for such different results.