Surface hoar galore

La qualité du hors-piste était:

OK

La journée était:

• Nuageuse
• Froide
• Ensoleillée

At our parking (~900m) approximately 5-10cms of light dry powder sat on top of the crust. Surface hoar was widespread on top of this lighter snow, all the way to our high point around 1750m. In many spots the surface hoar had decayed a bit in the morning sun, but 2-3mm crystals were still present nearly everywhere other than at ridgetop. In spots where the sun/wind hadn't done it's work we saw feathers of hoar up to ~15mm in size.

We ski cut a ~38 degree NW facing slope at 1700m with no results. At this elevation there was 10-15cms on top of the crust, with a bit more in wind loaded areas. As expected the snowpack beneath this was locked up from the freeze.

There was evidence of a large natural cycle, presumably from the pineapple express train. Nearly everything that could slide had slid (up to size 2 in this area, though the slopes are for the most part not big enough for anything bigger) and there were some chunks of cornice that had fallen as well.

Snowpack is still quite thin in the trees. Around 1500m treed areas were just barely skiable, though there was enough coverage in open areas to ski without hitting any sharks. Forgot to probe for snowpack depth up higher, but it increased dramatically over the last few hundred meters.