Quick report
This was an evening ski to look at the snow and to play in some steeper terrain before the storm. I did not directly encounter any avalanche problems. Looking forward to the coming storm: the curent snow surface is at its weakest and most concerning at lower elevations. As you climb, particularly once above the level of the recent inversions, the faceting is less pronounced and the SH becomes smaller or disappears entirely.
Snowpack
A very stout rain crust is found at lower elevations. 20-30cm of snow sits on top of this crust (facets in the lower half, a band of buried SH or two, and then ~10cm of recent snow at the surface). The rain crust thins as you climb, disappearing by 8k. Very dense snow (from the big pre-thansgiving storm) replaces this crust at middle and upper elevations. I did not encounter any wind slabs of significant size at upper elevations. Snow surface was soft and predictable. The budding 12/13 persistent slab problem looks at its worst at low elevations (advanced facets + SH on top of the rain crust). The facets and SH at middle and upper elevations are present, but facets are considerably stronger and the SH is smaller and less regularly distributed.