Observation: Guardsman Pass area

Toured up Guardsman Pass and then traversed PC Ridgeline to West Monitor to check out snow levels in the area. Stayed on ridgeline/low angle.

Observation 1: Widespread surface hoar seen in Guardsman Pass area. All aspects without evergreen tree coverage that I traveled between the road closure and just below Guardsman Pass had hoar. That is NW through W through S facing. Anything with a significant slope had smaller crystals of maybe 2-5 mm tops. Flats/depressions where air had pooled had crystals 20mm or larger.

Observation 2: Avalanche. Didnt get a picture and I was alone so I wasn't going anywhere near the steeps to check it out. NE facing, start zone 35-40°, crown 100-150 ft, 1-2 feet deep, ran ~400 ft vertical to the flats probably on the facets, broke where ridge rolled over. Trigger: explosive or maybe ski cut. It was just barely in bounds of PC with explosive marks nearby and, I assumed, patrol's tracks entering the bed surface. Ran through a nasty clump of small aspens.

Observation 3: S and SW aspects had solar warming, sometimes with a slight crust a couple cm below the surface. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was definitely the same phenomen Staples just posted about.

Observation 4: Minor collapsing. Was mostly on established skin tracks but heard a couple barely audible collapses.

Observation 5: Wind loading. PC side of ridge was variably wind loaded as expected.