#snowfields

Ah … suncups.

Suncups are often bowl-shaped (can be more like the above photo) open depressions in a snowfield. They form closely packed, honeycomb, often hexagonal patterns with sharp narrow ridges separating smoothly concave hollows. They can make for very tough walking!

Suncups form during the melting away of snowy surfaces. I often notice them where there is differential melting away of dirty snow. They may occur melting of clean snow by incident solar radiation on bright sunny days.

They are usually encountered mid-summer or later.