Observation: Turnagain

Sunny, very light west wind and temps in the 20's

A very high degree of wind effect in along the ridge and in many of the back bowls. Hard wind slabs, wind crusts and scoured zones with small a few pockets of soft settled powder in between. The winds from mid-week really did a number to the snow surface.

Although it was a glorious day, there was no warming in the snow surface on south aspects where we traveled nor did we see signs of surface warming from afar.

We dug one quick pit and then borrowed another pit from a kind group of two just finishing up (thanks J and F!). All pit results were unremarkable and no propagation was noted despite small facets and buried surface hoar residing in the top 18". We only tested the top 2.5' of the pack in effort to assess the weak layers buried on Leap Day.

Pit #1
1st Bowl, 2500', NE aspect, 15 deg slope (no snow depth taken)
A layer of 1cm Buried Surface Hoar (BSH) was found under 4" of soft settled powder. This was surprising to us as it did not appear to be the Leap Day BSH. We found decomposing fragments around the BSH here.
Down around 14" was a layer of small facets, just above a thin crust. CT in the 20's and ECTN in the 20's.

Pit #2, -3 Bowl, 3,000', West aspect (snow depth over 3 meters)
Found was is thought to be the Leap Day BSH around a foot deep. ECTN 11,15,17
This layer was hard to shear and seemed to have a lot of friction associated with it. It did not propagate.