Holiday crust sandwich

Quick tour in the Swan to document surface conditions and monitor the arrival of the storm.

• Last night’s freezing rain event crusted all aspects and elevations with a 3 to 5 mm breakable crust. This thin rain crust is sandwiching low density snow above the Christmas Eve crust, which is a thicker and stronger crust. The snow was bonding poorly above and below the new rain crust, evidenced by clean shears and shallow cracking. No surface hoar found. 
• Despite strong winds, there wasn’t much snow available for transport yet. The rain crust capped all but the couple of inches that fell today. There were periods of moderate blowing snow. Drifts were only a few inches thick this afternoon. 
• Snowfall started around noon, with moderate snowfall rates through the day and 2”-3” of new by 4 pm.
• We triggered a few harmless sluffs in steep terrain.