Surface hoar and fresh graupel at Blue Lakes

Large surface hoar observed today around Blue Lakes, intact in wind sheltered areas but blown over in windy areas. It was still intact when new snow began to fall around 3pm. This new snow was falling as graupel.

We didn't get into very wind loaded terrain today (our high point was just below 8500ft), but even on slightly wind loaded features I did notice shallow cracking that didn't propagate far.

We also saw several very recent wind slab avalanches on The Nipple, submitted as a separate avalanche observation.

Pic 1: Large intact surface hoar with handlebars for scale.

Pic 2: Large surface hoar blown over by the winds.

Pic 3: Lots of rime ice on Raymond Peak, and note how wind scoured the lower west facing slopes are.