Observations from Powerhouse

Toured mostly in mostly below treeline terrain on Luther Pass. I visited a NW clearing above treeline that had widespread Surface Hoar when I visited on 3/20. I dug a pit in this clearing and looked for buried Surface Hoar. There was an obvious crust about 40 cms below the new snow and I examined around this crust but wasn't able to visually find any buried Surface Hoar. Snowpit tests were inconclusive, largely due to the impressively uncohesive storm snow. Higher on the ridge where I dug, I could see snow transport and cornice developement but snow remained very soft in my location. 

I kicked on several test slopes on near treeline terrain and even after undercutting them with a skin track I didn't see any cracking or slab behavior. Below treeline I didn't observe any signs of instability. 

Photo 1: ECTN 18 down 38 cms. 

Photo 2: Hand hardness, F - 4F right above the crust. I removed the snow around the faint crust down 40 cms in this photo. The crust was visible to the eye in the field, but my camera struggled to capture it. It appeared there was weak snow above the crust, but with the very weak storm snow it was hard to be certain.