Surface Hoar in Deep Creek

My group toured into the Deep Creek zone today to ski the upper low-angle glades. Overall we found good cold snow that “skied fast” - noticeably more so than the day before. We observed widespread surface hoar in open areas below treeline as well as near treeline on the ridge. Surface hoar size varied from small to as large as 9mm. My photos are from near the ridge this morning, but we saw surface hoar intact throughout the area when we were starting to leave around 3pm. With a relatively calm weather system inbound tonight, it seems this surface hoar could potentially get buried and preserved. 

We observed at least a couple whumpfs throughout the day. The most notable one seemed quite large - our whole group of 7 noticed it - and occurred around 7500’ on a NNW aspect.

Digging quick hand pits at transitions, I found the 12/11 facet layer buried a couple feet deep near the ridgeline around 8000’. At this location they seemed to be gaining strength: they were 4F hard and held together somewhat in a (weak) snowball. Down lower, around 7200’, I found the 12/11 facet layer at about the same depth, and it was noticeably softer (F hard) and more sugary.