Cornice Ridge, Kootenay Pass

Spent day2 of our AST 1 course ski touring on Cornice ridge at Kootenay pass. Had a beautiful sunny day with generally calm winds. We skied southerly aspects between 1774m and 2060m. We observed widespread surface hoar formation to 15mm at all traveled elevations. The top 10 cm of the snowpack was faceted and very soft. We saw no signs of instability. We dug a test profile at 1925m on a North aspect where the height of snow was 80cm. The only shear result observed was a Moderate compression test (17 taps) resistant in character down 35cm below the November 19th crust. The November 5th crust was down 60cm and did not produce any results. The snowpack was generally right side up and supportive. Our main concern was low snow coverage and early season hazards while skiing. Moving forward, the new storm snow overlying the November 30 surface hoar (15mm) and facet layer combo will become of growing concern.