Another clear, calm day with temperature inversions.
Very large (10mm) surface hoar covered every surface. The sun was slightly warming steep south slopes, just enough to make trees drop snow from their branches.
Below 5,000ft we found a mostly shallow and weak snowpack with most layers softer than 4 Finger hardness.
At 3800ft, E aspect we found an almost entirely facetted snowpack of 50cm with larger, more developed facets in the lower snowpack and a thin, stout crust on the ground.
At 4,700ft, S aspect, HS 55cm. We found a single 8cm thick crust in the middle of the snowpack from all of the late-Nov rain and warming events. It separated facetting recent snow in the upper snowpack from the large mid-November facets in the lower snowpack.
Profile-
5768ft, flat, north ridge of Goat Peak. Targetted a location that had received previous wind loading
HS 56cm
56-55cm- F- hard, SH (10mm)
55-48cm- F hard, FCsf (0.3mm)
48-35cm- 4F hard
35-29cm- 4F hard, RGfc (0.3-0.5mm), older wind drifted snow
29-8cm- F+ hard, FC (1.5-2.0mm), some very subtle melt forms @ 29cm, mid-Nov FC; Tests- ECTP 2 @ 29cm, PST 20/100 END @ 29cm
8-0cm- 4F+ hard, MF(FC) (1.0mm)