Toured up to Gladiator Ridge today with the hopes of summiting Gladiator peak. Partway through our trek up the ridge, we stopped and dug two quick snow pits at around 9200 feet: one on a SW facing slope and the other on a SE slope. Both snow pits yielded unstable test results (ECTP 12 and ECTP 15 respectively), with the failure unsurprisingly occurring on the 12/7 layer of surface hoar. Snowpack depth was around 55-60cm on both aspects. We continued our ascent further up the ridge and noticed variable wind effect throughout the ridge. In some parts, it was clear the eastern part of the ridge had been loaded, while in others it was clear the western part had been loaded. There were also very dense wind slabs that had been formed and deposited directly on the ridge, which proved to be reactive. At one point, while climbing, we experienced a large collapse and saw various cracks shoot out from around us. We dug down and confirmed this was the wind slab cracking and not the 12/7 SH layer collapsing. We eventually decided to turn around about 400-500 vertical feet from the summit (where the ridge quickly gets steeper), given the flat light and various signs of instability we observed. We descended back down our skintrack.