On Sunday Jan. 2 Bob Howell and Joe Pohl skied the Libby Creek Loop.  
Conditions were good, with several inches of new powder.  Most of 
the trail is in very good shape, with just a few rocks relatively 
close to the surface in the open areas below the location where the 
trail makes the hairpin turn to the east and descents towards Libby 
Creek.  We met three other pairs of skiers on the trail.  We help 
one of those skiers improvise a binding made necessary because the 
binding bar on his NNN BC boot was badly damaged in a fall.

We dug a hasty snow pit at 13T 0398667 4577032 (NAD 27) near the 
lowest part of the loop trail on a semi-open 25 degree slope 
facing 100 deg. azimuth (~East).  The air temperature was approximately 
28F, it was sunny, and winds were relatively strong from the west 
early in the day but calmed by late afternoon.  The pit showed the 
following snowpack structure.


 layer height   Hardness     Notes
   #   cm     
------  86 --------------------------------------------------------------
   5             fist        fresh powder
------  80 --------------------------------------------------------------
   4             4 finger    almost fresh powder
------  60 --------------------------------------------------------------
   3             2-3 finger  well consolidated, minor layering
------  18 --------------------------------------------------------------
   2             1 finger    depth hoar     well consolidated/welded
------  10 --------------------------------------------------------------
   1             pencil      depth hoar       "       "         "
------   0 --------------------------------------------------------------

In a shovel shear test it took moderate force to cause the pack to shear 
at the 60 cm point, at the bottom of the almost fresh powder layer.  
Continuing down, it again took moderate force to cause the pack to 
shear at the 18 cm point, at the top of the welded depth hoar.  In 
summary, at this location the depth hoar was well consolidated/welded, 
and there were no other obvious weak zones in the pack.

The car counts were as follows, at approximately 10 AM.

                            with    without
                          trailers  trailers
 Corner Mountain Lot          0         2
 Little Laramie Lot           0         3
 Below Cattleguard           37         1
 Cattleguard to Turnaround   20         2
 Green Rock Picnic Gnd. Lot   0         6
 P. G. to Snowy Range Lodge  24         4

 Total                       81        18