Paradise Divide

We found a weather-beaten and tired snowpack. A thin crust on west through north to east-facing slopes decreased the Loose Dry avalanche potential a bit. We traveled over many stiff wind drifts, mostly in depressions and gullies in alpine and near treeline terrain with very minor cracking and no collapsing. I'm sure you can find a dangerous wind-drifted feature on the leeward side of an efficient fetch, but we didn't bump into any in the terrain we traveled through.

We found around 4 to 5 feet of settled snow near treeline. The snowpack is generally weak but supportive to skis. The layering is right-side up, with stiffer snow near the ground and weaker snow near the surface. We found the early-December Surface Hoar everywhere we looked below around 11,800 feet in wind-sheltered terrain on north through east-facing slopes. Near and below treeline, this will be the future weak layer of concern. On open wind-damaged slopes and in the alpine the large-grained facets between the stiff wind crusts will be the future weak layer of concern.