Poor test scores on Storm Castle Ridge
Today we toured up Storm Castle Ridge with hopes of skiing the 19th Street Couloir. On the approach we were able to trigger small (2-4") wind slabs on most lee aspects, these slides ran fast and far for their size. We dug a pit at 9200' on a North aspect and we're able to identify the surface hoar but had no results on our ECT. With 2 spotters I dug an ECT 10m below the top of the 19th Street Couloir and got and ECTP12@ 35cm below the surface. The slab was 35cm thick, pencil hardness and failed on faceted snow; the buried surface hoar found in most other pits was not present. We bailed to the opposite side of the ridge and enjoyed some wonderful burn skiing.