Widespread Persistent Weak Layers at the surface

Above 6,500 feet, we observed surface hoar on all wind protected slopes. On steep, easterly slopes, surface hoar was forming over a soft and thin melt-freeze crust from solar input. At all elevations, the snow above the Thanksgiving crust is faceting (fist hard, ~1mm facets). This layer increases in thickness with elevation, up to 10" thick at 7,000 ft. Above 7,200 ft, the slopes we traveled on were wind affected, and surfaces varied from wind board to sastrugi to scoured back to the Thanksgiving crust. There were isolated drifts just below ridgelines from a NW loading pattern. We stomped at a few of them with no sign of instability.