Hunted buried surface hoar in Canyon Creek, found it only on surface.

Location Name: 
Canyon Creek
Observation date: 
Monday, January 11, 2021 - 15:00

Is this an Avalanche Observation: 
No
Observation made by: Public

Location

Tabs

Quick Observation

Noted 5mm surface hoar on the surface on Northerly-facing openings in the trees in Canyon Creek.  It was sitting on fist hardness snow.

Did not find it on Southerly-facing slopes.  Those had a 5-10 mm sun crust.

Dug a hasty pit at a likely spot to look for buried surface hoar in the top 100cm of snow: a N-facing 32 degree opening in the trees at about 5200'.  HS:190cm.

Could not identify a buried surface hoar layer in top 100cm.   No propagating results in ECT.   The top 40 cm or so could be forced to fail as a slab by hard jumps above the pit, or with shovel shear.  Weak layer was above a thin crust.

Saw no obvious signs of instability. Ski quality was excellent, if not exactly bottomless.  Very few tracks in this area, but there were tracks aplenty on 35-38 degree slopes closer to WMR.  Mostly overcast, calm and below freezing all day.  

 

Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images: