Weather
2-3 inches of new snow on all aspects and elevations. Calm day, with few high clouds, temps mid-20s. Late in the day saw snow blowing off a high east-facing ridgeline.
Snowpack
On a northeast slope at 11,870 feet, with a thick supportive slab, an extended column test failed upon isolation beneath one-finger hard snow, 40 cm from the surface. The height of snow measured 115 cm (~4 ft). While leaving this pit, we found the slab unsupportive, approximately 20 to 30 ft away. At a lower elevation near treeline, a weak layer buried on December 9th rests 4 to 6 inches below the surface. The 4 to 6 inches of snow is very soft and not a cohesive slab. We got non-propagating results (ECTN) on the buried weak layer. The faceted snowpack below the weak layer of concern is generally harder, sintered faceted crystals. The snowpack structure on southeast slopes near treeline is extremely weak. This aspect and elevation has the weakest snow of all aspects and elevations we observed. There is no slab at all, though, so it's just a future problem. The snowpack is about 60 cm deep and is made up of a few thin, sometimes fragile, shallowly buried melt-freeze crusts and very soft faceted layers. Somehow this snowpack is supportable to skis while pushing a ski pole to the ground with very little effort is easy.