Persistent yet inconsistent

Today, we took advantage of suboptimal skiing to dig some snowpits. We were interested in three elements of our current snowpack. Reactivity (if existent) of the 1/11 surface hoar, thickness of the rain crust, and depth/character of new snow on top of rain crust.
 

• There are multiple persistent weak layers of concern within our snowpack, but we chose to focus on the Jan 11th surface hoar buried by the "Pineapple Express" 11/12-11/13.
• We beleive that the 1/11 layer was extinguished at most lower and mid elevation prior to the storm, but wanted investigate multiple elevations to pin point where it survived. We focused on N-NE slopes as they were most likely to be protected from the wind during the storm.

• First pit was dug at 6,217' on a N facing slope near ridgeline.
• Surface hoar was non existent on 1/11 layer
• Rain crust was Knife/Ice hardness and 4cm thick
• New snow was 6cm of stellar/grauple mix
• Snowpack depth was 159cm. We dug down 92cm. ECTX

• Second pit was dug at 6,412' on a NNE facing slope near ridgeline
• Surface hoar was present on 1/11 layer, 26cm below surface (average 1.5cm grain size)
• Rain crust was Knife/Ice hardness and 5cm thick
• New snow was 7cm of stellar/grauple mix
• Snowpack depth was 191cm. We dug down 126cm. ECTP10, ECTX, ECTN11, PST45

• Third pit was dug at 6,724' on a NE facing slope near ridgeline.
• Surface hoar was present on 1/11 layer. 30cm below surface (average 1.5cm grain size)
• Rain crust was Knife hardness and 2cm thick
• New snow was 12cm of stellar/grauple mix
• Snowpack depth was 226cm. We dug down 132cm. ECTX, ECTX, PST 85

KEY DISCOVERIES:

• In the Southern Flathead Range, 1/11 Surface Hoar survived above 6400' on N-NE facing (starts appearing between 6,200'-6,400' on N-NE)
• Our results suggest that 1/11 surface hoar is somewhat stubborn to failure, BUT at our second pit, it propagated on wrist taps, so it might be touchy in specific sheltered locations where the layer was best preserved.
• We avoided slopes steeper than 30 degrees while skiing above 6000' due to our findings. Best riding conditions were found on lower angle terrain anyways, due to excessive scraping and reckless speed on the steeps.
• New snow totals were unimpressive in the Southern Flathead, but when the rain crust was supportive and there weren't trees to run into, it was yeehaw conditions out there.