State of surface hoar, Shirley Canyon

We toured into the Shirley Creek backcountry with a group of AIARE recreational students to collect snow and weather observations. Along the way, we noted our obvious warm temperatures and cloudy skies. Our spectacular and widespread surface hoar we have been observing the last few weeks was all but decomposed on non-Northern aspects. At 6'629' elevation,, we found the crystals still intact just flattened to some extent by the new snow - on our Northern aspects. These crystals still are holding their surface hoar shape and were quite easy to pick out as they have been so large. The ski quality remains intact on our protected slopes though we will continue to monitor as our daily temps increase over the next few days.