Today we had another pleasant day out with TPF Level 1 course in the WMR backcountry. 2 groups toured in the Baby’s Butt/Old Man’s area and found similar results to the previous day in quick hand pits and one ECT on a southerly aspect - failure with no propagation ~45cm from the surface - but observed that it required more force to initiate. Another group toured out to Skook and got repeating propagating results in ECTs ~65cm from the surface with hard force on a lightly wind loaded north aspect just off the ridge (picture attached).
All parties noted increased wind affected surface snow and wind slab development on open or near-ridgeline terrain. A couple of old small storm slab crowns were noted by the class in the Skook Chutes but were hard to identify because they were partially filled back in from wind redistribution. No cracking or collapsing observed during our tours.
