First I looked at low elevation snow between 7600 ft and 8000 feet (the trailhead is at 7400 ft for reference). The most notable thing I noticed was a 1 cm thick layer of near surface facets (nsf) on top of a 1 cm crust with nsf's below it. I only found this on sunny aspects. I did not find it on shaded aspects. This was a common pattern in Montana where it sometimes takes some solar energy to drive the faceting process.
People in my group literally jumped onto small test slopes. None of them cracked except the one in this photo. This was the ONLY sign of instability I could find today.
There is generally 4-5 feet of settled snow. I could easily see a stripe of surface hoar about 2 feet down that was covered by snow on Jan 2nd and 3rd. However, this layer would not break in some pits. In other pits it would break with hard force but the crack would not propagate (ECTN 22). It looks like another group found it to the near by to the west on Hoyt Peak. It did propagate a crack but took very hard force (ECTP 30). There was also an avalanche nearby that caught someone. It looks like it broke 2 feet deep maybe on this layer??
Two snowpack profiles.
- E facing at 9950 feet
- NW facing at 9700 feet.
