Quick report
Good skiing in untouched powder in the less-traveled areas of Hangover Hill, at the north/northwest end. No obvious signs of instability but snow surface was beginning to crust in the afternoon, particularly in anything remotely solar. Air temp was above 32ºF by mid-/late afternoon. I measured 140 c.m. (5' 7") snow at the north end of Hangover Hill (the northernmost high point). A snow pit revealed a bulletproof ice/rain crust at about 47 c.m. down (93 c.m. up). This was the lower and significantly burlier of two distinct crust layers from warm, rainy weather in early February. This crust was hard enough to stand on in ski boots and I couldn't break through even when I stomped and jumped. I had to stab through it with probe and shovel. The hard crust layer was accompanied by a small layer of rounding facets. An extended column test produced a fracture with no propagation on the facets on the 22nd (hard) hit. One post-observation/retrospective note: The same weak layer of facets at the crust produced multiple large avalanches in the Flathead (including two injury accidents) after skiers found the same result I did: fracture on hard hits but no propagation, and no red flags. That makes me take the layer more seriously than I initially did after seeing the layer and ECT on Sunday.