First time out on snow for the season. Snow depths were about 18-40 inches (45-100 cms) depending on aspect, at elevations between 9400 and 10K. On northerly aspects there were about 16" (42cm) of 1mm-4mm facets sitting on the ground with the top half of the facets made up of layers of crusts with facets sandwiched in between. Snow pit results reflected the weakest interface was on facets below the deepest crust. Failure was with moderate effort and propagated across the colum. Boot penetration was boot top high. The Thanksgiving snow has consolidated into a 1 finger hard, 2 foot slab. Steep slopes facing the north half of the compass are suspect. The dense slab on top of the facets could easily give someone a false sense of security if they haven't done their homework. I did not do a temperature profile in my pits so I'm not sure what's going on with the temperature gradient.

Photo below: rimed surface hoar.