Thanksgiving morning tour up Steam Mill. Looking for buried surface hoar. Found it in sheltered NE terrain 8500'-9000' (1st photo, 8400'). Also noted deteriorating mid-pack MF crust that has mostly turned to facets. Didn't find a failure here on any tests but it is an interesting feature. Overall didn't appear to be much wind transport of the new snow in this area, only noted a few very small pockets of firm wind transported snow around the ridge-top. Did experience a few small/localized collapses in the lower meadow (~8000'), seemed to be limited to spots that built up small firm wind drifts.

Swung around to SE aspect and found buried MF crust in place of the SH layer (last photo). New snow surface was damp on the solar aspects. Still quite thin in many places. Biggest hazard of the day was the exit.