WMR Backcountry

We toured beyond the Whitefish Mountain Resort boundary to assess the buried surface hoar structure and depth.

• Traveling above the uptrack caused consistent cracking on the weaker surface hoar layer, about 6 in. down. 
• In open, wind affected ridgelines at mid-elevations we found 2" thick, 4F wind slabs by midday.
• The layer of surface hoar (formed New Year's week) was uniform at the aspects and elevations we dug at. While there were a few surface hoar plates up to 14mm (flattened), needles were the primary crystal form.  This layer did not propagate during our extended column test today, but produced a sudden planar fracture during our compression test on moderate taps.
• In the new storm snow, we did notice variations in the snow density, which was more noticable at lower elevations.

A conversation nugget from the day was discussing the importance of not becoming complacent though feeling fimilar with an area.

In steeper terrain, we noticed localized cracking, primarily at skin track switchbacks and underfoot, failing on the decomposing, buried surface hoar.

Pit 1: NE / 6500' / 37° slope, HS=240cm:
•ECTN12 down 15cm on SH
•ECTN21 down 60cm

Notes: F and F- hard snow on top of the SH layer, which was down 20cm. Christmas Warm-up was down 60cm and the AR crust was down 90cm.

Pit 2: S / 6400' / 30° slope, HS = 145cm:
•ECTN11 down 15 cm on SH

We did notice slight grain size and variations from the solar radiation in the upper snowpack that we did not observe on northerly aspects, but these layers did not provide any significant reactions during stability tests.The top 35 cm were F hardness snow resting on the Christmas Warm-up (P). The AR crust was down 60cm. 

Quick dig: 6000' (in flat, open terrain) showed uniform surface hoar grain sizes, orientation, and type as mentioned earlier. There was a slight (1/2 point) hardness change in the recent storm snow (see pic), most obvious at this lower elevation.