Surface hoar lurkin’
Quick reportjodybraul · Jan 6, 2024 · Vancouver Island
Quick report
- Weather
- sunny, cloudy
- Ride Type
- denseTrees, openTrees, mellowSlopes
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes, alpineSlopes
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
Deep snow today at Halcyon, dug a pit below treeline and found a layer of surface hoar about 45 cm down. We had a sudden collapse on that layer at CT 13 and it also sheared suddenly when a skier skinned up above the pit to fill it in. We didn’t have any whoomphs or shooting cracks other than above our pit, but the quality of the shear and the observation of surface hoar crystals was enough to keep us on low angle terrain. The ride quality was great and we had fun jumping off of things into the fluff.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 160
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- SE, E
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Test Initiation
- easy
- Test Failure Depth
- 45
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- surfaceHoar
CT13 on surface hoar, approximately 45 cm down. Propagated and slid into the pit when a skier skinned above the pit to fill it in.