Drizzle for Shizzle

Went into the Flathead Range to inspect snow surfaces prior to the incoming hydrologic onslaught.
 

• Pre-dawn hours were cloudy, no stars, no precip.
• Around 8am, we began to observe very faint precip. Wish I could say that it was snow. It was drizzle.
• Faint drizzle persisted up to 5800', where it transitioned to micro snow.
• We had hopes of traveling to ridgeline, but the cloud deck lingered around 6900', so we skied a few short runs to see if things would change.
• Winds were light at mid elevations, but noticabley more active at the valley bottom of each run, blowing up valley from the WNW.
• Around noon, clouds were still lingering, but slowly elevating to about 7700'.
• We decided to push up to the ridgeline, and a key observation was made along the way...
• Widespread surface hoar became prevalent at 6600' up to 7800'. Observed on E, NE, N, NW, and W facing.
• Surface hoar grains were .5-1cm, and made up the top 1-3cm of the snowpack.
• We were traveling in the same zone on 1/09 and widespread surface hoar was present down to 5000, however today it only existed above 6600'.
• We think that winds and warming deteriorated this layer mostly below 6600'.
• Winds were moderate on ridgetop (15-20mph from the West)
• Our old skin track that we attempted to use became very slipperly at 5800' because it was blown in by surface hoar facets. We believe that recent wind has been shedding this layer off the top and sluffing it down slope. It accumulated on the shelf of our skin track, making it difficult to use. It was sugary/slippery and much easier to put a track in a few feet above or below the track, where facets were not as prevalent.
• We also got a better look at the glide crack observed on 1/09. We were able to see bear grass exposed near the bottom, which makes me think that although this layer may have failed days or weeks ago, it has very recently continued to creep down slope. I don't have pictures to support, but we also noticed a some areas with a rippled snow surface hundreds of feet adjacent to the crack that we believe is related to the ongoing event.
• And finally, as we traveled back down valley we found snow that had clearly succumb to the previously mentioned drizzle. Snow surface was moist and stickly below 5000'.

• I believe that the most significant observation was the well developed surface hoar that existed just below ridgetop on ENE facing terrain. Hopefully the wind has its way with this layer before new slabs overlay...