About 15cm of surface snow sits atop supportable crust. This is a sampler pack of soft snow: NSF, surface hoar, a bit of preserved 2-day old powder, mixed forms, etc. While we found surface hoar generally up to 7500ft or so, it was small (a few millimeters). Above 7500ft it was less widespread (likely owing to the exposure of the ridge).

The soft-ish surface snow didn't seem to meet visible wind effects until 8300ft, leaving decent turns in protected zones. Immediately below the crust is old faceted snow. Given how little snow we currently stand to eke out of the next precip event, I'm not too concerned yet with a persistent problem, but with enough loading I'd be suspicious of the facet-crust sandwich lurking underfoot.