MLK Layer

Now that I have been out and about touring, I'm seeing significant melting below 5500 ft and quite a bit of snowpack consolidation from 7000ft down. A lot of the high cornices have broken or released, but there still is a fair amount of them lingering.
I postulate that the upper snowpack has done a considerable amount of consolidation. The effect of that has created a whole new mass structure or bridge above the MLK crust if it still exists. I feel that the threat level of the MLK crust sliding down would be low at this time because of the consolidation.
There is the threat still of terrain traps from surface sluff or hissers which I saw today. Cornice failures, or snowpack over smooth rock faces.
Do others feel that the MLK crust threat level is as low as I think?

I was thinking the same thing today on Hood. Some recent releases on the south side, above 9K, and lots of recent melting lower down.

I believe I might tend to agree with you, Joe, as far the mornings go, on open, south facing aspects that have been sun worked pretty well.

However I'm still not real comfortable on the northerly aspects yet... especially if we get some really hot weather. I've still been able to punch through the more consolidated, well bridging, upper layer on northerly aspects with my pole basket and drop through to a foot or more of that soft, soggy layer above the lower crust. I get chills of what might happen if that upper crust gave way on a warming trend and picked up the soggy layer below it.

OTOH, any testing I've done on the southerly aspects has shown that the soft, soggy layer in the middle has almost completely settled out into a somewhat more homogeneous mass.

Thanks for the input Ron. I have not seen that type of depth you are talking about recently, but I trust it's out there. Mainly I'm talking about 7000ft and below. Anything above that I think will still go through a significant mush cycle as snow levels consistently progress higher.
Interestingly, I have been on south slopes that ski like perfect corn and then traveled a 1/4 mile, one ridge over to ski the exact same elevation and exposure and had sticker deeper top layer. Go figure???

It doesn't appear that any significant warming is on the horizon, I'm hoping more consolidation occurs before (if) it does.

Ronj, can you clarify which layers you're referring to on the N. aspects? I've have similar results on N aspects of breaking through he supportive surface crust layer to the mush below 18"+, but at ~6-7K the MLK crust should still be below the probe depth of a ski pole.

I really haven't been thinking too much about the MLK crust layer as i've been out and about this spring, but timing and route selection are still major concerns.

Ronj, can you clarify which layers you're referring to on the N. aspects? I've have similar results on N aspects of breaking through he supportive surface crust layer to the mush below 18"+, but at ~6-7K the MLK crust should still be below the probe depth of a ski pole.

Mofro - Not really... my observations have been fairly rudimentary and simple tests while traveling, between about 7000 and 4500; not pit profiles or anything near that precise. I totally agree with your assessments.
The point I was trying to make (albeit somewhat poorly) was that if the bridging crust on northerly aspects was to fail in a major way, then entrain the slush below it that we both have observed, a lot of weight would then be moving pretty fast. This would seem to me to be a perfect recipe for step downs... and knowing that the perfect slide plane of that MLK crust is down there somewhere is of little comfort to me.