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I went up to Lake Haiyaha today to check out how things were going and it's getting to be late fall. Some of the north facing aspects are starting to retain snow above 10,200 ft. elevation. I took this picture looking across the lake and the smaller snow covered hill in the center of the picture has some of my favorite runs on it and they are starting to hold snow:

The long mountain in the background is Otis Peak which I climbed last April and posted a trip report on the forum here: http://www.grandshelters.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26

winter is definately here in northern Minnesota. The temperature fell below zero last night for the first time since March. Forecast for tonight is -15.

The snow has been sparse this year. Almost everyday we pick up at tenth of an inch or two, but nothing substanial yet. With daytime highs in the teens, anything that falls will stay now.

I have about two inches of snow in my yard. If we can pick up at quick 6 inches or so, I will be building igloos and camping!

Mark in Minnesota.

Who's chompin at the bit? Heh, I hope it's soon for ya.
Them -15f. temps will mean that the ground will freeze and your snow won't get so grainy from the warm ground. I think we are going to have a low avalanche season here in CO for the same reason. A bit of a lack of snow here until recently but it's been cold and the ground is frozen in the shady areas.
The -15f. will also be tough for you to pack but hopefully the Midwest Demo will help.
I went up today to the igloo I built last weekend (Turkey Day) and got this view looking up the canyon from near the igloo:

I had some 18 inches last weekend and it stormed another 18 inches while I was there but it came after I built my igloo. It looks like it's been windy all week and has blown all the fresh snow into the pockets and drifts where it normally collects. This drifting added another foot to the igloo site but with the snow consolidating, there is about 36 inches in the areas where it collects. It's heavy though, so it won't take much to build an igloo like the cold powder it fell as last week.
Here's a picture of how the igloo looks this week:

The fine grained ice I built it with last weekend has held up nicely. The foundation didn't look like it sagged at all and the igloo either. That igloo will probably last until it is buried so deep in snow that digging the door out will be a lot of work.
The hill behind the igloo is where the first picture was taken from.
The first picture has Otis Peak on the left and that is what I went up last spring on this trip: http://www.grandshelters.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26
Happy days...