I dug a pit at 9300ft north facing. When I skied here last week- before the storm- the surface snow had turned to facets and included surface hoar on sheltered slopes. Today’s total snow depth 150cm (in this location). The distinct line in the photo is the old/new snow interface of near surface facets (NSF) and surface hoar at 100cm.

ECT12 Q2. Failing at old snow/new snow interface of buried NSF and surface hoar. Note: I did not dig deep enough to check the reactivity of the persistent mid December weak layer. It is still present at 60cm and easily penetrated when I stepped out of my skis and into the pit.