Snowpack Obs from Chief Creek

I ventured out into the wet, misting weather today to look at the snowpack in an area where I knew there was well-developed surface hoar present before the last storm cycle. It was found 130cm below the surface (at 8200', N aspect), and was obvious to the naked eye and also in snowpack tests (Photos #1&2, + profile and video). Deep Tap tests produced planar results, and a propagation saw test indicated that if a failure occurs, it could travel along this layer (pst 20/130end)

The mist/light rain has saturated the top couple of cm's in this area, but I expect this to continue deeper into the snowpack as the day goes on. We'll be watching for loose wet instabilities as the warming/rain continues. Settlement of the recent storm snow is obvious around trees and averages 20cm's (photo#3). 

Otherwise, no signs of instability were observed today.