Skier compaction? Against all odds, surface hoar survives and thrives!

Assisted FOFAC with an Intro to Avalanches couse today in the Southern Whitefish Range.

Operated a pit station for the course on a NNE facing slope at 6700' below the radio tower road on a 36 degree slope.

• For learnings sake, was pleased to discover that the persistent slab structure/surface hoar layer was present and reactive at this location.
• Surface hoar is about 14 inches below the surface here and the overlying slab is mostly 1F hardness with a thin (.5cm) pencil hard crust capping.
• Our stability test results were somewhat inconclusive for reactivity, ranging from ECTX to ECTP5.
• However, one touchy propagation result is all I need to indicate that we cannot rule out this problem child just yet.
• This slope would by many standards be considered a "bad" location for a pit site; Frequent skier compaction and control work by WMR, as this steep slope threatens the gray wolf cat track directly beneath. I think this makes our results especially interesting. If the surface hoar and persistent slab structure has survived here, think of the many other places it might be hiding and thriving...