Practice pit - any thoughts?

I recall seeing those same airpockets in the snopack last year. This was shortly before the big warmup that wiped much of it way. It looks like this year we will get to see what happens if we just keep piling more storms on top of it. My guess is that it was the surface hoar that collapsed or that the light snow under the crust settled. I am certainly no expert so those are just my half baked theories.

Question: is that snow plowing debris in the snow?

LOL...that's what I thought at first too. Props on carrying the triad (beacon, shovel, probe) with you even inbounds.

There's a number of things that could result in pocketed snow, exhaust from car emissions a possible culprit too. I'm no expert by any means, but I'm guessing because of the elevation it's probably due to rain, rain/snow mix, and a number of temperature changes.

So after a few hrs in-bounds at Alpental, my buddy and I decided to dig a pit across the street - just for practice, when there was nothing at stake and all that...

It's not always safe across the street.

Ummm, roads/parking lots at Alpental are blown out by large snowblowers.  15 yards is definitely in the range of their snow throw.  When you dig a pit, generally you want to do it in an undisturbed area.   Spotting layers in a pit is easy.  A compression test gives more info, but the hard part is taking that info and determining if you should go or not go. 

Here is a link for a good compression test    www.avalanche.org/~nac/slideguide/new_slides/compression.html