Waiting on a storm

Today we toured into the Swan Range to track surface conditions before the arrival of the storm. 

• Surfaces at middle elevation are very weak. Roughly 6 inches of facets capped with surface hoar sitting on a slick crust. 
• Above 6500 feet we found heavily wind-affected snow. Surfaces were mostly firm wind board or crust. The pockets of soft snow we found were faceted and weak, but most of the surface hoar we found was tipped over from winds. 
• Winds were strong above 6000' with minimal to no transport. 

As many other observations have noted, there is a healthy crop of surface hoar that formed during the last week. Slopes sheltered from the wind are the slopes where this weak layer still exists. Managing slope angle will be key in the next few days.