I've been out several times and have been watching the buried faceted layer near the ground develop and respond to recent snow events. A week ago the facets were quite loose and F-hard. However, they have seemingly settled out and adjusted to the increased weight from the series of small storms we have had over the past 7-8 days. Dug lots of quick pits on northerly aspects > 9500' and the facteed layer is quite easy to identify underneath the dust layer from the dusty pre-frontal winds on 10/28. For the most part, this faceted layer is now closer to 4F than F hardness and it has appeared to compress somewhat. Some quick pits were producing no fractures with compression tests, or at most 25+ with poor quality shears. In a few locations was also finding damp, faceted grains where you could in fact make a snowball. Pretty evident the faceted layer was quite reactive to the 10/28 - 10/30 storm snow, but it has settled out significantly since then. New snow amounts have not been enough to tip the scales to make this layer reactive once again. This will obviously be a prominent layer we will watch this early season. Snow surface is light density stellars that facets very well - will also have to observe the snow surface over the next several days for signs of weakening. I'm sure Brett Kobernik will have more to say on this.......

So happy to see winter is finally here! Have a great & safe season everyone.

Forecaster note:

HA!! Yes, I will have more to say on this after getting into the snow on Wednesday. Excellent observation Greg.