West Tetons- Targhee Sidecountry

A rain crust from ~Nov. 5 is located around 20cm from the surface (where the snow wasn't blown away; bring the ice skates for areas where it has). This crust is worth looking for, noting now, and tracking moving forward, particularly during the next significant snowfall.

This crust connects many pieces of terrain. It also provides a slick sliding surface with some facets hanging out above and below it.

A second layer of small facets deeper in the snowpack are also producing mixed propagating/non-propagating results and located around 30cm from the ground. 

The favoring of the west side for the season's first significant snowfall in late October has bode well for the snowpack here. At large, it appears to have more moisture, and the greater depth has helped shield against some of the worst for our dry spell. Rain crust here noted to 10K. We tucked into several N/NW aspects as well as S/SE. Snowpack on the southerlies was a mixed bag of melt-freeze crusts and faceting snow, all moist and with no real significant characters popping out. N aspects illustrated a different scenario, with predominantly dry snow and more developed faceting. Non-propagating results in pits similar to those found at Glory as well as what patrol is seeing inbounds at Targhee. These highlight two layers that may pop in the future: 1) A layer of well-developed and well-preserved facets sandwiched between a rain crust and a melt-freeze crust around 20-25cm down and 2) a small facet layer present in the early-season snowfall and very hard to distinguish, as the base of the pack is a relatively uniform block of faceting snow. It goes without saying that the thinner pack you find on a N aspect, the worse the snowpack looks.