Quick report
Surface hoar is now buried below 2-3cm of new snow and could be felt rebreaking skintrack. New snow during the tour included stellars/stellar dendrites. Overnight (12/31-1/1) new surface snow was already weakening (faceting) above 4000'. Cool temps for this particular winter, but not lower than 25F at ridgeline, calm wind, high humidity and riming in progress at 5700', obscured to clear skies with very flat light. Beauty of a deep snowpack for NYD in the alpine, while early season hazards are in full effect below 4000'. The most marginal skiing is currently in refrozen tree bombs/rain crust areas under full tree canopy. Cornice drops produced no results; we didn't see any signs of instability. Happy new year!