Shooting cracks on castle peak

We toured in the Castle Peak - Warren Lakes area today and observed several signs of instability. Winds along the crest were very strong and had scoured much of the ridgeline between Castle and Basin Peak. At the location on the map, we intentionally collapsed a refrigerator-sized cornice on to a wind-loaded slope below. While the slope did not avalanche, we observed shooting cracks extending 70 feet in both directions. We dug a pit along the skiers right flank and found that the cracks were roughly 2 feet deep in that location. An extended column test there failed ECTP22 about 2 feet down on a thin layer of lower density snow sandwiched in between two denser layers. (Photo 2) We also observed an ECTN result in this same pit closer to the surface.  We also observed a crown from a natural avalanche on a similar slope just north of this area. (Photo 4)

On a south facing aspect at 7850 we conducted another extended column test that failed ECTP12 on what appeared to be the same second windslab layer below the surface. (Photo 5)

While descending down a NE slope to Warren Lake at 7600, we observed several instances of wind slabs cracking up to 3 feet in length underfoot when they were unsupported, i.e. skiing above small convexities or ski tracks.