We were surprised today to find a nice firm base of about 18" with another couple inches of fresh-ish fluff on top. The bottom 18" was nice and consolidated and great to keep us on top of the rocks. Don't get me wrong... There were ton's of sharks teeth out there just waiting for a lapse in attention, but for the most part we were help up on top and able to cruise. Tw, io of us made about 2500 vert worth of turns each today and neither hit anything. This was in an area that I normally would never ride early season. Very rocky in the summer. So, the base looks great! The part I'm starting to get concerned with is the depth hoar that is developing around buried rocks. The couple of quick hand pits we dug both found rotting snow down around the rocky ground. Also, in the super shady north facing slope we were poking around on, we began to notice surface facets developing also. Not a problem yet by any means, but if this dry spell continues, it could get ugly.