Back to Cardiac, seeing that it's the only game in town if you actually want to ski. Most all slopes covered today ie: Cardiac Ridge and Cardiac Bowl have surface hoar growing on the slopes even on the wind crust and slabs, just another weak layer to add to the snow pack if it doesn't get destroyed by pre-frontal winds before Wednesday nights storm. The snow pack is unsupportable without out skis on and barley supportable with them on. Trail breaking is getting tougher every day with sliding backwards being the rule not the exception. I was getting some shooting cracks in the 1 to 2 inch thick wind slabs that are now resting on faceted snow. I can only imagine that the Cardiac area is going to have a major avalanche cycle if we ever see enough of a load to get things moving, the SE facing on the Ridge is also suspect and faceted. If we don"t get enough snow for avalanches I would suspect there would be some long running sluffs in steeper terrain.

Photos: Surface hoar growth on E and NE facing Cardiac Ridge, shooting cracks in thin wind slabs on the ridge