Went for a quick ride to check out the snow surface which is a mixed bag of conditions. Weak snow on the surface isn't a problem until it's buried, and then the snow above it can become the slab that makes the avalanche. A lot can change, and the weather can destroy this weak snow before it gets buried. We'll see.

The scary thing is when this weak snow is buried on some slopes but not others. What that can mean in the future is that one slope could be stable (where the facets were destroyed prior to snowfall), and another slope can avalanche (where the facets survived and were buried). They say that buried surface hoar is the weak layer that tends to catch avalanche professionals and guides because it's distribution can be spotty. The good news is that it's rarely a problem in Utah because we get the right weather that destroys these weak layers.

I didn't go into upper elevation, alpine areas above treeline where much of the snow is hard, wind blown snow.

Photo below shows the recrystallized, faceted, snow on a 2mm grid.

In meadows, there is very large surface hoar (frozen dew) that rides like loud, soft powder. It sounds like broken glass

South aspects have a thick ice crust with some very small facets under it (0.25mm). They likely won't be a problem.

The main thing is that we'll keep watching the snow surface and monitoring its evolution.