Looking for Surface Hoar

We went searching for signs of lingering instability on the buried surface hoar layer today. We started from Little Truckee summit and dug 8 snowpits and performed 12 snowpit tests in several different locations on Webber Peak and around Lake of the Woods. We found the surface hoar layer near a crust in a few of the snowpits on N and NE aspects but none of the snowpit tests showed any signs of instability (ECTN x 1, ECTX x 10, PST 99/100 - see screenshots of the maps for locations). General observations also did not reveal any signs of instability on the mostly NW-N-NE aspects that we traveled on today.

We did find soft breakable crusts on most slopes at midday. Our snowmobiles consistently broke through and riding conditions were quite good. By the afternoon soft wet snow existed on the northerly aspects that we rode on. We did not venture onto many southerly aspects since we wanted to focus on trying to find data on the persistent problem. We did see some roller balls and pinwheels on a steep NE slope near Lake of the Woods. These looked like they had occurred yesterday or the day before.

Many patches of pavement had melted out on the first 2 miles of the Jackson Meadows Rd. out of Little Truckee Summit.