Observation: Turnagain

Three groups on day 2 of a Level 1 with the Avalanche school braved the cold parking lot temps and toured from the center ridge lot towards the Tincan backdoor, Center ridge & backdoor Sunburst area. All parties dug pits below treeline. A group at 1150′ on a W aspect in an meadow on the approach to sunburst did not see any failure or propagation in their snow pits, but did observe a well-preserved surface hoar layer 80cm down. The other travel groups travelled a bit higher in elevation and did not observe a buried surface hoar layer in their pits. Another notable result from the group on center ridge, at 1330′ saw failure on a weak layer of facets beneath the Christmas crust: CTV @ 10cm, ECTN6 @ 10cm.
Clear blue skies made for a beautiful day out and a few cm’s of surface hoar on top of a supportable crust made for quick travel out of the field.