Wet snow from Hope Valley towards Ebbetts

Very warm day today, combined with recent rain, made for either crusty or wet snow surfaces on all areas traveled from the Hope Valley SNO-PARK to Indian Valley. In the morning through mid-day, shaded slopes still held a frozen crust at the surface and made for challenging riding. Once that softened, riding became more enjoyable. Sunny slopes melted and became wet and heavy, with liquid water percolating through the upper 12" of snowpack. No signs of the recently buried surface hoar remaining intact were observed today.

Video: At pin drop, an E facing slope at 8000ft with morning sun, and not steep enough to be fully shaded after noon. Water had percolated down to the Jan 4th facets where they were close to the surface, and an ECT failed on the facets but did not propagate. Just 20ft away, the facets were deeper in the snowpack and remained dry. An ECT did propagate on them, but it required more than the standard 30 loading steps. No informal signs of instability were observed today.