A tale of two aspects

Quick afternoon trip to monitor snow surface and check on our buried frenemies: facet/ crust combos and surface hoar.

• Deep snowpack (> 200 cm) on leeward, northeast aspect near a ridgeline (~6700'). Several distinct weak layers in top ~75 cm, including surface hoar and crust/ facets combos. Not reactive at present (no propagation in tests). Other parties reported propagating test results on buried surface hoar about 60 cm below the surface (1/13 and 12/22(?) crusts cut through and isolated.) 
• Shallow snowpack (< 60 cm) on windward, south-facing slope near ridgeline. Most prominent layer was about 8 cm of soft, well-developed facets/ depth hoar above hard ice layer near the ground. Not reactive now, largely because there's no slab above it.

Each aspect seemed to lack a key ingredient for slab avalanches at the moment. A well-developed, reactive weak layer on the shaded slope, or a stiff slab on the sunny slope. 

The shaded slope seemed representative of conditions on those aspects. I suspect the depth hoar on the sunny slope was limited to patches where winds had scoured much of the season's snowpack away. Those and similar patches could be trigger points if buried with a stiff slab. I'll be looking for them.

What was similar on both aspects was the near-surface snow:

• 3-10 cm, low-density snow sitting on 1/13 crust, which is hard on sunny slopes, softer on shaded.
• The low-density snow includes large, intact surface hoar.
• This layer makes for fast, friendly turns now, but is a likely candidate for future frenemy once buried by a stiff slab.