Western Wallowas

Fresh wind slabs were building in size at upper elevation terrain.  They were shallow around mid-day, but increasing in size with moderate winds from the South-SW.  My biggest takeaway from the two snow pits I dug was within 400' elevation change the depth of snow dramatically increased from 5.5' to 7.5'.  The Nov. 22nd rain crust was noticeably thicker at 7,350' than at 7,700'.  It appears the trend is showing a strengthening snowpack structure around the Nov. 22nd crust and the Thanksgiving Drought Layer in the two locations where I made observations.   I will continue to look for signs of strengthening or weakening of these two layers as I travel in new locations or change aspect/elevation.  

Cracking was isolated to very fresh wind-drifted snow at ridgeline, and along cornices.

I dug two snowpits, the first at 7,700' on an NW aspect where I found 220cm (7.3') of snow.  The Nov. 22 rain crust was buried 112cm (3.7') below the surface and was thin (around 1/16").  The Thanksgiving Drought Layer was buried 87cm (3') and was gaining strength and the facets were rounding and chaining together.  At this location, my two snowpit tests (Compression Test N-No Fracture) did not reveal any unstable layers in the top 4'.   

My second snowpit was again on an NW aspect at 7,350', where I found 170cm (5.6') of snow.  At this location, the Nov. 22nd crust was nearly 4" thick and I found faceted snow that was rounding above and below the crust.  Fortunately, the Thanksgiving Drought Layer (TDL) was rounding.  The only test result showing instability was a failure in the rounding facets down 95cm (3') where the TDL rests on the Nov. 22nd rain crust.  There was variability in my test results, but the fact there's any type of facet around a crust raises some red flags.