Throttle, schnoodle, dig holes, eat noodles

Sled to ski exploration in the north Selkirks near Mica Creek. We went out seeking the crust and surface hoar layers that were buried in early December. We found the crust 2 cm thick, 40 cm below the surface, up to 1500-1600 m. At 1825 m on a west aspect, we found the surface hoar down 70 cm. It was small (2-4 cm) and rounding, but it was reactive in snowpack tests. We didn't have time to get up to treeline or the alpine, but if we did have time, we would have avoided large, steep, open or convex slopes.

Mildly stormy day, less than 5 cm accumulated while we were out.

35 cm of storm snow sits on another 35 cm of settled snow. No sign of a crust at this elevation. Early December surface hoar is 2-4 mm in size, and down 70 cm, producing moderate resistant planar compression test results. In the extended column test, the fracture propagated across the whole block. No sign of a crust at this elevation. The mid to lower snowpack is faceted but gaining strength, with 5 cm of rounding depth hoar right above the ground.