Observation: Girdwood

We began touring up Raggedtop through intermittent alder meadows and old growth forest. We felt repeated large whumphs in the low angle alder clearings and decided to turn around within about 20-30 minutes of starting out. Before descending we dug a pit at around 1500′. It was on an east-facing aspect about 50 feet into a large meadow just above treeline. The compression test failed on 11 (first tap from the elbow) about 40 cm below the snow surface. The extended column test then failed on the same surface on the first strike and the block slid off and fell from the column.