Thanks TaxiMan. 3,000' on the white vs 2,000' on the browns. Apparently that's all it takes to affect the duration of snow cover.

5 weeks ago I got a double (photos on the weasel thread) on LT's @ 1,500' they were both brown. Then I had to pull traps for awhile and got the lines back out mid-December @ 3,000' but I was too late cause the white one is beginning to discolor already (not readily visible in the photo), so I dropped back down to 2,000' and got those browns about only 2 miles away from each other. The window of opportunity for the white phase is so short just a few weeks. The brown phase is much longer; from about late Nov until late Jan/early Feb here.

Any leasts (Mustela nivalis) there yet?

beautiful photo