Smoke and Feathers

We dipped into our first day of powdering riding with about 90 cm of total snow at Allen Creek today. We found a widespread layer of large, feathery crystals growing on the surface and another one buried down 40 cm. We had concerning test results on this buried layer, and after talking it over as a group we decided to dial back our terrain use. We stuck to meadow hopping and approached small slopes one at a time. As we rode around cautiously, we saw cracks, heard a whumpf and noted signs of a previous avalanche cycle a few days old. The riding is starting to shape up, but we'll be approaching terrain carefully while this remains a problem.

We found a widespread layer of buried surface hoar down 40 cm. It was on a variety of aspects at treeline, and we expect it is also in many areas of the alpine. We had concerning results on this layer with all our results breaking across the full block under easy loading. ECTP 4 on east slopes, ECTP 9 on north slopes and ECPT 14 on southwest slopes for the keeners. ;)