Temperature at the trailhead was about 25 degrees. It was overcast but the higher clouds allowed for decent visibility. We had very light snow off and on and no observed winds.
Observation: Summit
Location: Tenderfoot
We toured from Tenderfoot trailhead up the NW face to the ridge line. The goal was to get a better understanding of what the thinner snowpack was looking like in the region.
Weather
Snow surface
2 inches of light snow covered a breakable melt-freeze crust. The crust at higher elevations became less thick and was absent around 2300' and above.
Snowpack
1: Hand pit on NW slope at 2300' we had a consolidated block of snow break on buried surface hoar with moderate force about 8" deep.
2: We dug a pit to the ground at 2800' on a N slope. The snow was about 5' deep with two layers of concern: the buried surface hoar 1' deep and the Thanksgiving crust 4' deep. The buried surface hoar was reactive and collapsed in our CT test under the 1' slab (CT20 @30cm). Further stability testing saw a full propagation across the column (ECTP22@30cm) on the buried surface hoar.
Snow pit
bottom of block showing the buried surface hoar
BSH grains