Faceting snowpack on Castle Peak (and still plenty of firm surfaces that warrant crampons)

We hiked Castle Peak today to see how much progressive faceting has weakened the snowpack in this area since our last visit on Nov 10. Back on Nov 10 the snowpack was well consolidated from rain on snow and absent of any notable weak layers. Over the past 19 days of mostly clear dry weather, the snowpack in just about every shaded area has weakened through the faceting process, creating sugary loose grain crystals both on the surface and in the mid to upper snowpack between rain crusts. In sun exposed areas, bare ground has emerged and a few shallow patches of wet snow linger. It's bare ground on the south side of the mountain and a rotting snowpack on the north side.

Snowpits tests targeting the sugary, faceted weak layers gave no indications of current instability. These same tests indicated that the existing snowpack in shaded areas is in poor condition to handle substantial new snow loading. Previously we had not seen concerning weak snow below about 8,500'. Today we saw it as low as 7,400'-7,500'. So it's basically wait and see, continue to monitor until the next storm cycle arrives.

Despite all of the faceting, the surface rain crust remains supportable and firm in many areas. Crampons were warranted for much of our travel. In any spots where our feet easily punched through the surface crust, the upper snowpack held a thicker layer (up to about 6 inches worth) of fist hard loose grain facets.