Foggy Mountain breakdown

Went back to a slope where I'd found the Christmas Eve crust to see what had developed since. 

• 12/24 crust now buried over a meter deep. Did not react in tests.
• 3 potential failure planes above this crust. One (small facets and maybe surface hoar) produced inconsistent results in tests - propagation in one (ECTP 18) and not in the 2nd. This layer about 30 cm below today's snow surface. Another layer of surface hoar buried 60 cm below the surface didn't propagate in large column tests but did fail in a small column test (CTH 22 SP). 
• The 12/31 rain crust was also buried over a meter deep. It is distinct, w small facets and surface hoar glommed onto the bottom of it. It didn't propagate in tests, but released easily and as a clean plane when prying on the block. 
• By mid-late afternoon, the most recent snow (4-6" deep) was settling into a soft slab that cracked around our skis as we were skinning on steep slopes. Cracks were less than a meter long. 
• No fresh drifting. 

Visibility was very poor, so we stuck to glades and the edges of short open slopes.