Noted 5mm surface hoar on the surface on Northerly-facing openings in the trees in Canyon Creek. It was sitting on fist hardness snow.
Did not find it on Southerly-facing slopes. Those had a 5-10 mm sun crust.
Dug a hasty pit at a likely spot to look for buried surface hoar in the top 100cm of snow: a N-facing 32 degree opening in the trees at about 5200'. HS:190cm.
Could not identify a buried surface hoar layer in top 100cm. No propagating results in ECT. The top 40 cm or so could be forced to fail as a slab by hard jumps above the pit, or with shovel shear. Weak layer was above a thin crust.
Saw no obvious signs of instability. Ski quality was excellent, if not exactly bottomless. Very few tracks in this area, but there were tracks aplenty on 35-38 degree slopes closer to WMR. Mostly overcast, calm and below freezing all day.
