Just like Bill’s pit on Sunburst on saturday 12/27/08, the top 1-
2 feet of this Main Bowl snowpit shows a bad temperature gradient
near the surface. I took a close look with my magnifying glass
and saw striations, sharp angles, mixed with broken particles and
rounded grains in the top on this snowpit.
Basically, the surface snow is faceting and could become a
dangerous weak layer after the next big storm. Plus, I saw
surface hoar on the surface. The current 1-2 feet of surface
snow will be the primary weak layer to watch out for in the near
future. There is a grab bag of facets, hard slabs, and surface
hoar at those depths.
I did not find the buried surface hoar or a crust on top of the
October facets near the ground. This layer continues to fail
after hammering on the shovel. I wonder if this layer on the
ground will fail with the next big storm?