Quick report
A group of five (4 skiers, 1 snowboarder) in an avalanche course tried to observe buried surface hoar that were recently observed in the whitefish range a day prior. We were on a NW aspect at an elevation of 6,362. We were unable to confidently locate the buried surface hoar. At 126 cm we observed a hard crust and did two ECT tests with results of ECTN24@/31 and ECTN22. We also did three PST tests at 140cm but no propagation or collapsing occurred. 2-3” of New snow was deposited yesterday (2/22). Today (2/23) had no wind and clear visibility with scattered clouds. Overall, the facets observed seem to be rounding, however as we continued with snow column test and applying excessive force with a shovel pulling behind the column we noticed the slab broke at an unidentified layer about the crust. Our interpretation was this could be the buried surface hoar starting to round. However, we decided that this surface hoar layer should be treated with caution and as it may still exists and present problems at steeper angles.