Isolated a couple of columns with my pole at 8300 and 8900 ft N-NE facing. In both cases there was about an inch of very low density snow on top of a firm uniform (1 finger) base. Gentle prying on each resulted in an easy and clean shear 12-14 in deep. In the lower column, failure was just under the rime layer and in the upper column failure was at the same depth but there was no obvious crust. The snow felt stable right now, but adding much weight could complicate things a lot. Storm snow failing at the current surface and then stepping down to the rime layer? I was too lazy to get out my shovel and explore beneath the rime layer