Surface hoar growth on Powderhouse peak.

     Toured up Powderhouse peak to check in on conditions, coverage and in search of buried surface hoar. Conditions consisted of unconsolidated low density snow that didn't seem like it has settled that much and was not wind effected below tree line. Coverage on the other hand was not great and there are still a lot of rocks, stumps and logs barley under the surface. Throughout the tour up I found widespread surface hoar along the way below tree line and near tree line up to 9000'. The surface hoar I did find was on shaded aspects and anywhere from 2-5mm in size. There were also areas were the top few cms of snow was a mix of surface hoar and dry and loose grains as if near surface facets were starting to form. I dug several hand pits along the way up and did not observe any buried surface hoar at all. I stopped at 8800' and dug a pit. The rain crust near the bottom seems to be weakening but still has graupel above it and rounding facets below it; however, the snow below the crust at the earth's surface was wet and compressible showing signs of improvement. My compression test had no results at any depth. As I continued up and got near tree line winds increased and wind features/wind transportation was more prevalent. I came across old ghost tracks that had loaded back in from the recent transportation. Reaching the summit I could see snow transporting off the ridge lines of Stevens, Showers and Red lake peaks blowing from East to West. The ride down was powder conditions but required being light on the feet and navigating the high spots to avoid buried obstacles. No other signs of instability observed.