Buried Surface Hoar at the Onion

We rode up to 1660m, near the top of treeline, and dug a snow profile. We had repeated results on an extended column test down 20cm. These results failed on buried surface hoar layer from early March. In this area the surface hoar layer had a stiffer, wind slab above it. It was a bit surprising to find this surface hoar layer in terrain that is so wind exposed. In the coming days with new snow trickling in and continued moderate winds, we are going to carefully assess how much snow sits above this layer before committing to steeper terrain.