Traveling around both skinning up and skiing down, I was not breaking through the firm surface crust and saw no signs of instability. I was surprised when I dug a pit at 7200" on a north slope that the PWL is still there despite the warm temps we have had intermittently the past two months at this elevation. I guess that is why it is called 'persistant'! There is a very stiff 2 inch crust down about a foot that came out with ECT 13 (full propagation). This crust is sitting on the old facets that failed. No sign of this instability skiing about but still a problem lurking.

Photo 1: the buried crust (put on edge) that is sitting above the PWL

Photo 2: dust on crust turns

Video: failure of the buried crust on the PWL