Observation: Brighton Perimeter

Wanted to get out and see what the snow was looking like before tomorrow's potential weather event. Crust was prevalent on all aspects, not a whole lot of good skiing this morning, as I got up and down before any sort of softening occurred. Crust was between 1-3 cm thick on all aspects. Hand pit tests revealed faceting below the surface crust on all Easterly and Northerly aspects. Dug a pit at 9500 ft, East facing. Weak layer of sugary faceted snow between 30-35 cm from the ground. I also found 1-2 mm facets right below the surface crust. Performed an extended column test with no results. Judging by what we have going on out there right now, significant loading could complicate things as far as snowpack is concerned. The track is definitely greased with the current crust we have on the surface and temperature gradients within the snowpack have caused faceting. As has been said many times before, the snowpack is thin and the expected snow accumulation for tomorrow won't do much more than disguise obstacles.