I noted a variety of weak snow surfaces touring in Red Pine today. Above ~8200', most sheltered and shady slopes harbored some form of surface hoar, which I continued to notice until I passed onto an unsheltered slope around 10,300'. This was not present on all sheltered/shady slopes, but certainly the majority. Of more concern, on low angle N and low angle to steep NW-SW slopes, I noticed faceted crystals on a stout MF crust which my skis did not substantially break through while skinning. These crystals were feathery, striated, and 1-2mm in size. I was initially concerned that their presence on a MF crust indicated radiation recrystallization. However, they also could've been surface hoar that grew last night (relative humidity on Mt Baldy reached 90%, conducive to surface hoar) and had not yet been destroyed by the sun, since I noted them on a westerly aspect around 11am-noon. That said, I'll be keeping my eye out for radiation recrystallization before the next snowfall, given that the low sun angles this time of year provide a better radiation balance for radiation recrystallization.

On the NW face of White Baldy, above 10,400', the snow surface was mostly wind crust of varying hardness. On 30-35 degree NW slopes which received a small amount of sunlight at the end of the day, I noted some faceting rounds underneath the wind crust, .1-.5mm in size. These probably wouldn't be an issue if it snowed tomorrow, but may be by the time the next storm comes through. Above 10,600' on a steep, northerly aspect that receives little or no sunlight, I did not note any faceting under the generally stout (1-2cm) wind crust. The few cms under the crust that I sampled were very small (.1-.3mm) rounds. However, the crust was not well bonded to the underlying soft powder, and I noted some shooting cracks in it, plus it would slide easily when I stomped on the corners of my skin track. This may have been due to a thin layer of facets underneath the crust that I neglected to check for- needs further investigation.

The scouring on the NW face of White Baldy indicated wind transport to the southern aspects. Otherwise, no wind-related instabilities were noted on this tour.