Surface hoar surprise

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Excellente

Les conditions de neige étaient :

• Poudreuse
• Mouillée
• Affectée par le vent

Nous avons parcouru:

• Pentes alpines
• Blocs de coupe forestière
• Pentes de faible inclinaison
• Forêt dégagée
• Pentes ensoleillées

Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:

• Pentes convexes

La journée était:

• Nuageuse
• Ensoleillée
• Chaude

Conditions d'avalanche

• Augmentation rapide de la température jusqu'à près ou au-dessus de 0°C ou neige mouillée en surface.

Today we went to Hankin on the hunt for buried weak layers below the recent storm snow - and we found them!

We dug on northeast and northwest facing slopes in the alpine, and found a layer of surface hoar 30 cm deep below the new snow. This layer produced repeatable propagating Extended Column Test results (ECT P 17, ECT P 20) with moderate loads. The weak, feathery surface hoar crystals are not found everywhere, but it is worth investigating slopes for this layer as the result could be a significant slab avalanche, especially in wind-loaded terrain features and shady slopes.

We didn't see any new avalanches.

At treeline and below, there is a thick melt-freeze crust just below the surface. We haven't found the surface hoar in these areas and were able to find good skiing with 5 cm of creamy, moist snow over the crust.

The day was warm and cloudy, with mostly calm condtions.