Snowslide Canyon Near Treeline

KPAC's remote Camera Weather Station captured an image (below) early this morning in Snowslide Canyon near treeline, on a southerly aspect. There appears to be surface hoar developing. The snowpack is 25" deep. There is about 1" of soft snow (12/27), and beneath that is the thick, knife-hard Christmas Grinch Crust (CGC) that formed from rain and subsequent freezing. 

If these weak, faceted (surface hoar) crystals are preserved and the forecast New Year's storm creates a new slab of cohesive snow, we will have the ingredients for a slab avalanche. That includes a cohesive slab, a weak layer (buried surface hoar), and a bed surface or a good sliding surface (the icy CGC).