Mostly facets throughout snowpack on east aspect of Divide Peak. Dug in search of buried surface hoar, none found. Melt-forms and lower density snow found between 85-81cm. ECTX.
We crossed Hebgen lake near the dam and skied in the trapper creek area.
About 2 inches of new snow - consistent from the lake to the ridgeline. No signs of instability or avalanches observed (we didn't see the small slides triggered on Sunday). Dug on a SE aspect at 9000 ft (just below the ridge). Found the surface hoar 1 ft down (ECTN17) and fist hardness facets at the ground. Was surprised not to get propagation (maybe not enough slab in this spot?), but stuck to our initial plan and avoiding steep slopes anyways.
New surface hoar is growing on the snow surface at all elevations, in places feathers are up to 1 cm.
Wind loading from last storm snow. Large surface hoar formed on all aspects. Also noticed 1-2cm settlement around trees on northeast facing slopes.
We rode to Arange Peak and dug a pit (HS 210 cm, S facing, 8800'). We found the SH/nsf layer, but it did not propagate, It was a good 2 feet under the surface. We then rode and dug 3 more quick pits and either didn’t find the SH or had ECTN or CTN. We saw no avalanches and a rider who was near Mt. Jefferson 2 days ago also saw no activity. I am still very leery of the SH and believe it survived on a few slopes and acted accordingly, i.e. no riding steep slopes.
Noted a couple of fresh slab avalanches out there today. Both were on northerly aspects around 9300'. Photo of one attached.
