Surface Hoar on Talking and Becker Cirque

On northerly aspects, decent snow coverage existed in areas above 7600 ft. Below this coverage became much thinner. On southerly aspects, spotty snow coverage existed up to above 8000 ft. On the sun exposed aspects, firm melt freeze crust existed on the surface. On the sheltered northerly aspects, the snow that fell in the 12/23-12/24 storm remained cold, soft, and unconsolidated. This soft snow rests on top of a layer of loose weak facets that exist above the 12/15 rain crust. Tests targeting these facets on N-NE aspects at 8800 ft, 8200 ft, 7800 ft, and 7600 ft. indicated if this layer does break in this area that the resulting fracture is unlikely to propagate along the weak layer at this time. Another test in which we simulated additional snow load showed that this layer will likely reactivate with additional snow load. Ski cuts on test slopes in wind loaded and non-wind-loaded areas did not produce any signs of instability. No signs of wind transport were evident along the Sierra Crest in this area. Widespread 2-3mm surface hoar existed on the snow surface at all elevations in this area on NW-N-NE aspects.