Shooting cracks

Rode at mid and low elevations in the Southern Whitefish Range being wary of the ongoing surface hoar issues here.

• Several pits on shaded aspects showed surface hoar buried about a foot deep.  The layer was larger on slopes with open views of the sky.  
• We got propagating test results, shooting cracks, and saw several natural avalanches from a couple days ago on open, shadier aspects (including SE).
• On due south slopes, we didn't see the surface hoar, just a sun crust.  On slopes with good canopy cover, the surface hoar was small grained.  Test slopes did not produce results in either of these types of terrain.  
• We noted several natural storm slab avalanches that broke earlier this weekend on low elevation, shaded aspects, D1 in size, presumably on surface hoar.  These were just above the rain/snow line around 4500-5000'.