Time to Dig Deep

Calm and cloudy afternoon spent in a hole in the Southern Whitefish Range

• In anticipation of the new snow forecasted this coming week, I wanted to spend a day getting a sense of the present surface conditions.
• I was also interested in digging deep today to assess the early December facet/crust situation. I decided to travel toward the slopes above "Big Slide". I targeted this SE facing slope because our neighbors in southern BC have reported two persistent slab avalanches on SE facing slopes this winter. (D2.5 near Fernie on January 2nd Lizard-Flathead, Fernie , and D3.5 near Nelson on December 31st, Whale's Back, Nelson)
• While touring, I noted great travel conditions on a supportable crust capped with 0.5cm-2.0cm of rimed surface hoar and near surface facets.
• Winds were calm/light from the West between 11:00am-3:30pm
• I dug my pit and recorded a full profile on the upper fringes of Big Slide @ 6239'. Pit Graph attached.
• Was pleasantly surprised to find okay skiing above 6000' today. The surface crust seems to be decomposing a little bit with the cool temps and the near surface facets made things extra shredable.

Take Homes from time in the hole:

• Surface Hoar & Near Surface Facets capping the recent crust is a bad deal. Something to track as the new snow comes in. Hopefully it comes in warm and melts (destroys) these faceted grains.
• There was a notable layer of softer snow (4F+ rounds) in the mid-pack. 10cm thick and 62 cm below the surface. Did not produce failure in stability test.
• Dec 4 Facet/Crust Situation was 33cm thick at this location. Large grains (1.0mm-3.0mm) of Rounded Facets/Large Rounds. I looked hard for depth hoar within this old snow and was unsuccessful at locating any. CT17 Q2 at the top of this layer. PST119/150 Arr