Quick report
We traveled from Heather Meadows to the top of Panorama Dome in the ski area on Saturday and were pleasantly surprised by the coverage. Snow depths ranged from 30-50cm (12-20in) at the trailhead to nearly a meter (40in) of depth at 5000'. We largely stuck to the summer road and did not see any signs of instability other than a D2 natural storm or wind slab avalanche on the other side of Swift Creek. Snowfall rates varied but were generally quite high (>1in/hour). A snow pit on an east aspect at 4820' yielded a depth of 83cm with 2 primary layers of concern. 25cm below the surface, we found a 4cm layer of wet meltforms from the rain-snow transition likely on Friday night. This layer produced a resistant planar fracture after 6 taps from the wrist in our Compression Test (CT6 @61cm, Q2). The second layer of concern, a crust interface 70cm below the surface, failed after 1 tap from the shoulder in a compression test (CT21 @12cm, Q2). Though we did not see any cracking or collapsing during our travels, these compression test results aligned well with the forecast for the day. Occasionally plunging ski poles into the snow during the day, we found the existence of the mid-November crust to be variable.
Avalanche
Observed what looked to be a ~100ft wide D2 storm (or wind?) slab avalanche on a NE aspect below Huntoon Point at 5000' elevation.