Winds were not transporting any snow this afternoon and previous wind-loading was minimal. Cold temperatures today kept the surface snow from melting too much on sunny slopes. In some isolated locations (shady aspects and in the trees) there was some large surface hoar, 5-10 mm, present on the surface.
Also, I observed surface hoar at the snowpit location at the top of Big Slide at 6200 feet on a south aspect. Only it was much smaller here in the open and only 1-2 mm in size. The upper 20 cm of the snowpack consisted of four crust layers with facets in between - the multi-layered crust/facet sandwich. I observed fracture with moderate force but with no propagation on a layer of facets just beneath the lowest crust. If we ever get some new snow, this structure in the upper snowpack could be problematic. Bottom 30 cm of snowpack was rounding depth hoar. I observed a fracture with hard force in about the middle of this layer in a CT test, but no reaction with an ECT.
Above 6000 feet in the trees and on shady aspects, noted the absence of crusts, or at least the crusts were much less developed. I mostly just found some good noisy turns in the faceted surface snow.
Mostly sunny skies with either calm winds or the occasional light breeze from the northeast. No precipitation all afternoon. Cold in the shade, but quite warmer in the open with the sunshine.
