Surface hoar in avalanche terrain on Lincoln Ridge

We toured on Lincoln Ridge this morning and noted widespread surface hoar(SH) on all aspects. With snowfall in the forecast for Sunday, it seems like time to start taking note of SH distribution and monitoring if it persists to burial or is destroyed pre storm by warming and wind.

By midday surface hoar was melting and falling over on S aspects. SH remained intact and upright on the N-NE-E aspects that we traveled as well as along the W side of ridgetop areas. The largest SH we saw was 20 to 25mm in size, but not in avalanche terrain. We noted 8 to 9 mm SH that was widespread across open NE avalanche terrain and classic wind slab avalanche zones near the ridgetop.

Otherwise we encountered the expected mix of wind scoured snow surfaces in areas exposed to SW and NE winds along with unconsolidated snow and minor near surface faceting in below treeline areas protected from the recent winds and solar radiation. HS in wind protected locations in this area is greater than 3 m.