On Saturday December 13 Bob Howell skied the Potholes route from Green Rock 
to open meadows above the open air chapel.

One group of skiers had broken the first half of the trail earlier that 
morning, but had returned before I arrived.  The upper half was untracked, 
although still visible in most places.

Conditions were mostly cloudy with a strong wind, but nice once within the 
trees.  There were 4 inches of very fresh powder, probably from the last 24 
hours, and about another 8 inches from within the past week.  The trail was 
in very good shape, with even the lower meadows snow-covered when I 
arrived, although they were partially blown clear by the end of the 
day.  Most of the deadfall across the trail mentioned by Myron last week 
was now almost covered and can easily by crossed.  I cut away a couple of 
the higher pieces.

I dug a snow pit at 13T 0396758 4579953 (NAD 27) at elevation 10405 ft, in 
the upper meadow above the small lake.  (This is close to the locations 
from last season.)  It was on a 22 deg. slope, facing 86 deg (E).

The snow depth was 92 cm.  The air temperature was -8C (18F).

height Temp.  Hardness                           Crystal structure
 cm     C
 92-----------------------------------------------------------------
 90  -7.5     fist         Very fresh powder     0.5 mm dendritic
 86----------------------------------------------------------------
 80  -7.5     3 fingers                          0.5 mm slightly rounded
 70  -7.0
 63-----------------------------------------------------------------
 60  -5.5     4 fingers                          1   mm faceted
 57-------------------------------------------------------------------
 50  -4.5     1 finger                           0.7 mm rounded
 40  -3.5
 38-------------------------------------------------------------------
 30  -2.5
 20  -2.0     2 fingers                          1.5 mm faceted
 10  -1.0
  0  -0.5 -------------------------------------------------------------

Shovel stability test:  The snow pack sheared relatively easily at the 
faceted layer at about 60 cm height.  Below that it required considerable 
force to cause it to shear again, near the base.

In summary, there is a weak layer at ~60 cm height.  The lower part of the 
pack is relatively well consolidated, and doesn't show the very weak large 
crystal depth hoar that was present last year, at least at this location.

The car counts were as follows.
                         ------- 11:15 AM (MST)
                            with    without
                          trailers  trailers
 Corner Mountain Lot         0         3
 Little Laramie Lot          0         3
 Below Cattleguard          33         0
 Cattleguard to Turnaround  24         2
 Green Rock Picnic Gnd. Lot  0         1
 P. G. to Snowy Range Lodge 21         1

 Total                      78        10