Forecaster Comments: Excellent, thanks Derek -

There appear to be 4 snowpack structures in play at the moment, depending on aspect and elevation. Pictured here is the coverage (or lack thereof) in the middle elevations. At the low elevations there's 30-40cm of snow, mostly F hardness and rimed forms/small graupel, increasing in density with nearness to the bare dirt on which the recent snow fell. At the middle elevations the snow depth is 50-60cm, increasing from F-4F hardness with increasing depth where the snow landed on bare dirt (aspects W-S-SE). This would be great snow to ride if there were more of it. As it is, vegetation sticks through everywhere, sharks abound, and while there's little/no avalanche hazard in this terrain, the risk of significant trauma from catching a stump or rock is quite significant. Unfortunately, unless you're accessing the upper elevations via a resort, the only way to get to the greater snow depths higher up is to ascend and descend this terrain.

The second snowpack exists in the mid-elevations above 7500ft or so with 50-60cm of rightside up snow sitting on top of the November facets. Not super inspiring, though with the low snow depth, not great to ride at the moment anyway. Regardless, at present I'm considering it guilty until proven innocent. This quick pit was ca. 7500ft on NNE aspect.

The third snowpack exists in wind affected terrain. There is wind affected snow beneath the new snow from Thursday/Friday (20211216-17) in exposed locations. In some spots, this is just a thin wind skin (1-2cm) and not terribly concerning. In deposition zones, this is a 1F wind slab 10-15cm thick with weaker snow below and new snow above, making for about 80cm of total snow depth. This rests atop 5-10cm of November facets. This pit is NW facing at 8000ft.

The fourth snowpack (not pictured) is what I suspect exists at higher elevations: much more continuous basal facets, with well connected wind affected snow from the new storm sitting on top. I wouldn't be surprised to see a natural avalanche or two had occurred above 8500ft or so once the clouds break and we can see up high.