Shoulder shmoo

We went for a jaunt up to Begbie shoulder today to hunt for surface hoar. We found that there is a crust under the most recent storm snow at 1500 m and below. The surface snow was moist up to about 1800 m. In the forest the evidence of the recent wind was shown in the form of many tree bombs and lots of woody debris. Once you reach the ridge top the recent winds had filled the previous tracks as well as built some new winds slabs in the lee that were 10 - 30cm thick. While we were unable to find the surface hoar in the exact places we dug today, the avalanche evidence lately suggests it is still out there. We chose a conservative line down through the trees and enjoyed our "coastal powder"