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Story of the snowpack continues to be the mid-November drought/rain crust and the variety of weak snow that developed around and above this crust during late November. There is a ton of snowpack variability with elevation and aspect, with a significant change in the snowpack between ~7,000' and ~8,000'. Things generally looking worse as you climb. In my walk today, the snow below 7,000' did not look terribly problematic currently. However, I did find a stiff, ground-capping crust of old snow underneath the recent snow on shaded slopes down to at least 6,600'. This could be a concerning combination with sustained rainfall at lower and middle elevations. I attached photos of two snowpits that illustrate some of the elevation variability. I experienced collapses that became larger as I climbed above 8,000', though less significant/sizable/frequent than observed near Galena Summit the previous day. In the area I traveled, there did not seem to be enough of a slab on top of the layers of weak snow to be a problem in terrain completely sheltered from the wind. In terrain where the wind had built slabs, this was a different story (third snowpit photo below). I would anticipate this problem would develop in sheltered terrain with ample continued loading. Shaded slopes at highway level were navigable, but with plenty of larger objects exposed. I'm still moving slowly and taking my time out there, but there is a good bit of snow around. I experienced a handful of collapses, which became more frequent as I climbed and entered wind stiffened terrain. I was not seeing much for surficial cracking as these collapses happened, but I could get some small wind slabs to crack easily by kicking at them. I did not see recent avalanches, but my visibility was pretty limited by flat light and falling/blowing snow.

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