Observation: Turnagain

Skied a few laps on Tincan Ski Resort, er… Tincan Peak, with a few dozen
other folks. The mountain looked to average about 4-6″ of new light, fluffy
snow from this past week. Conditions were calm with a strong inversion present
up to about 2000ft, where the top of the stratus layer hung out all day.
Noticed a lot of rime ice on tree branches and the snow surface all the way up
to the top as well as the formation of small surface hoar crystals.

Most of the instability I noticed was in the new snow. A few sluffs were
present but I did not see any other signs of instability. I performed an ECT
on a West facing 37 degree slope at about 2200ft, and did not get anything to
propagate. With a compression test, I did get a CT11 Q2 result which collapsed
but did not slide near the top of a faceted layer. This created about a 2ft
slab.

I would definitely say that the buried facets are still posing a problem and
could easily collapse with the right amount of stress in the right location.