December 22, 2012, Snoqualmie Pass laps

We hit the trail at 7:30 and skied some 5000' all around the damn place.  Found 0-12" of fluffy powder (mostly 5") on top of various kinds of crust - breakable, paper-thin, and boilerplate.  In places the wind had blown the fresh off the crust, making it important to look where you skied (an option I declined was simply skiing hard enough to ignore the variable snow). 
Overall, very pleasurable skiing, with large patches of shallow but perfectly smooth powder, great fodder for GS turns. 
Other notes:
- the tops of some north and west-facing couloirs were scoured somewhat clean, but lower down they skied great.
- most slopes have a good handful of death cookies.
- steep south-facing slopes lost their snow quickly in long wet slides. 
- there was enough sun today for exposed slopes to dampen, but not excessively.  Pinwheels were of modest size, maybe up to 1', but mostly much smaller. 
- significant hoar frost evident in many lower semi-treed locations. 
- very minimal slabbiness was apparent. 
- bootpacking: some easy walking on crust, but more wallowing through breakable crust.

Great to get after it today.