Powder for Your Skis

Found some great powder to ski out there today! While sledding up the road we saw where a part of a bank had let go in a slab around 60cm deep a few days ago. We investigated and found as expected, that the weak layer was surface hoar. This layer seemed relatively widespread in the area and we found it each time we dug down. It was not at all reactive in our tests however, (ECTX, DTN, CTN) and the same went for a deeper layer of surface hoar we found down around 90cm that was buried in mid January. While skinning up we experienced no whumpfing or shooting cracks, and we purposely tested some small steep rolls to see if we could get anything to go - all with no results. We slowly gained confidence in the snowpack as we went, creeping into steeper terrain as the day progressed. Up high in exposed areas there was a consistent moderate westerly wind that was moving some snow around onto lee slopes as well.