Angell Basin

During my travels today I made several discoveries. I found a mixture of snow surfaces from crusts on solar aspects to boot-top decomposing powder on polar aspects. This soft snow was above a previous melt-freeze crust and made for slippery travel on anything steeper than ~20 degrees. I found medium sized surface hoar growing in isolated locations, but also in locations where it would quickly be destroyed by wind, such as the Angell/Lee's saddle. Interestingly, I also found buried surface hoar just above the previous melt-freeze crust in these locations, but did not find it buried anywhere else in the basin. There were some locations where previous wind scouring was visible, but this was also very isolated. Good skiing was difficult to come by given the low coverage levels.

Approximately 3' of snow observed around 8000' with significantly less on southern slopes. Surface hoar noted at Hoffer Lakes and at the Angell/Lee's saddle. Buried Surface Hoar found down 6" (14cms) via compression tests. No slab in top 6" and small near-surface facets observed. Strong temperature gradient and evidence of minor facetting in top 2/3 of snowpack. Basal layer appears to be a decomposing melt freeze crust <8" thick.