The Soggy Search for Surface Hoar

Heading out the door, we expected conditions to still be pretty touchy after Friday night’s storm. With 10+ cm in the forecast for the day with some cranking wind, we chose a pretty simple and sheltered objective and headed for Red Heather hut. Lots of cars (and stoke!) in the parking lot. There was only about 30 cm of recent snow on the ground at 1000 m, but as we climbed so did the snowpack! At the hut (1400 m) there was around 80 to 100 cm of snow. We dug a few quick profiles and found the drought layer from November to be a significant weak layer of large surface hoar down 40 to 50 cm. This layer was reactive in snowpack tests, producing moderate to hard propagating results with extended column tests. Pretty spooky stuff! It kept us on mellow terrain with no overhead hazard. The storm snow was becoming heavy with temperatures nearing 0 C at the hut. Ski quality was still okay and there have been lots of stoked skiers up there enjoying the powder.