Grand Mesa

Very supportive snowpack, mostly made up from the Holiday Storm snow. On northerly slopes where the slab rests on old snow layers, the basal layers have gained strength and begun to sinter. On southerly-facing slopes the recently-deposited dense slab rests on the ground, with no basal weak layers.
We found two layers of surface hoar in the upper snowpack. One layer covers the snow surface on west, north, and east-facing slopes. The grains are generally 4-6mm, but we found some huge 3 to 4cm feathers in wind-sheltered open areas. The second layer of surface hoar is buried around 5 to 10cm below the snow surface and it feathers rest above a thin melt freeze crust formed after New Years.