Weaker and weaker

Day off tour into the Mission Range. Although this area is south of our forecast areas, I suspect there are some similarities with the Swan Range that are worth sharing.

• The snowpack was exceptionally thin and weak at low and mid elevations (~1 ft deep or less) -- composed of fist hard facets overlying a crust to 5700' and fist hard facets overlying 4F facets above that.  Large surface hoar (>1cm) on the surface at lower elevations.  The snowpack is somewhat stronger at high elevations thanks to previous wind hardening, deeper pack (~2-3' deep), and less inversion, but still faceted.  
• Near ridgetops, we found a few recent small and thin drifts (up to P hard), that did not produce any signs of instability.  
• On southerly aspects at upper elevations, the Thanksgiving sun crust/facet layer was down 6" to 12" below a faceting slab that was not reactive in stability tests.  Below 6,500', the snowpack is simply too loose and faceted for any kind of slab concerns.  We traveled on steep terrain at all elevations with no signs of instability other than minor sluffing.