Low angle pow grins just the same.

Today was a tour in the Whitefish Range.

• One of our main objectives was to track the buried surface hoar on the south aspects.  And find it we did.  It was generally down in the snowpack about 2 feet deep, and a few inches above the obvious 1/13 crust.  However, it didn't show up until approx. 6500 feet.  Below that the 1/13 crust is capped with small facets.  While it wasn't broadly distributed, we found it in enough locations that we steered clear of steep terrain in the mid and upper elevations.
• We did have several collapses today.  They were all above 6500', but it was difficult to predict where the next one would be.  Some openings would sound off, others wouldn't.  It was reason enough for us to choose the lower angled terrain.
• Below 6000 feet there was a density change at the new/old interface approx 10 inches down.  This was more reactive in our tests than the 1/13 crust/facet combo until we got to about 6300 feet. We got a few propagating test results on the buried surface hoard between 6300 and 6700 feet on south and southwest aspects.
• The snow surface above 6800 feet has surface hoar on it on all aspects.  
• We saw plenty of avalanche activity from the last natural cycle, mainly confined to southeast, east, and northerly slopes above 6000 feet.  These avalanches were running on the buried surface hoar layer and were WIDE (some crowns were up to 1500 feet in width).