Apex Backcountry

Spent a couple of days touring around Apex this week. Skiing is Ok to good, better in the trees. Travel is slow due to heavy snow. Highly variable snow depth, particularly above treeline due to high winds from all points of the compass. In sheltered areas, base is 80-120cm. Overall a weak and faceted snowpack with depth hoar present in some areas. The main bowl on the sunny side of Secondary has been stripped by wind and is below threshold in most areas. Below treeline and more true south aspects are holding more snow. Test pit shows easy to moderate sudden results down 20-25cm on the mid Dec layer with propagation likely indicated with extended column tests. Some skier reactivity on this layer noted in sufficiently steep or unsupported terrain. Failure plane is a combination of facets, crust and surface hoar. The mid Nov layer is still producing hard sudden results down 50cm on large surface hoar. For you snow nerds: CTE4 (SP), CTM12,14 (SC), ECTP12 down 25 on mid Dec, SH to sz 8, FC to sz 1 Recent HN is settling into a F to 4F 10-20cm deep on top of a variety of old surfaces, including SH and some hard crusts on solar aspects. Some windslab from previous SW. Mid Nov SH layer down 50cm. Basal facets and DH to size 3, particularly where pack is shallow.