Blue lakes

We went out snowmachining in the greater Blue Lakes area today. Snow conditions consisted of a mixed bag of melt freeze forms, wind affected areas and cold dry snow in shaded areas. The cold snow in shaded areas is starting to grow near surface facets in most areas. Some surface hoar was observed in areas, but mostly in low-lying terrain and near water sources. Overall, the riding conditions were pretty good leaving a decent Ski pen of tracks behind you on most aspects and elevations. Snow machines were able to remain cool and not overheat in most places. Open waterways in drainages and meadows was one of the bigger hazards of today. Navigating around and finding proper snow bridges took time to find good crossings. As we traveled in below tree line terrain and into above tree line terrain there was no avalanches or signs of instability observed at all today.

I dug a pit on N aspect at 8100'.  I dug down about 80 cm to investigate the January 1st rain crust.  The crust was about 55 cm down from the surface. This rain crust was a little thicker than I've seen in other locations. It did produce a resistant planar result within my compression at tap 22. Flipping over the block there was ~1-1.5mm facets present underneath the crust. I skipped the extended column test as it's not always accurate when dealing with crusts. So I set up a PST and the irregular shape of the crust made it difficult to feel confident in my result.