A wide variety of snow surfaces out there that are becoming less predictable even in high, north, sheltered terrain. The shifting winds, sun, and temps over the previous weeks have made it tough to find consistent soft turns even in the expected terrain. We triggered some small dry loose facet sluffs in some very steep terrain, and is a good reminder of how weak much of the snow surface is becoming, even if under a crust in some of the more solar terrain. We noted some beautiful and large surface hoar, mostly at lower and mid elevations and near water sources and sitting on a pile of faceting snow, but also noted some that sat on a thin crust on SE/E aspects (see photo). This crust/ facet or surface hoar combo is what I am keeping on my radar for when we get snow. We also noted some small amount of overnight snow transport into a skin track from the day prior that appeared to be cross-loaded onto a SW running ridgline. It also seems like in upper mid/high elevation, polar aspects with a thinner cover, the facets near the ground were drying out significantly. Solar aspects up to mid elevations are very thin, rocky, bushy, and with snow that was dampening significantly by mid day, while upper elevations were bullet proof crust. The best, consistent skiing was in the upper mid elevation band, with lower mid elevation band trying to start up a corn cycle on solar aspects by mid day.
