Unfortunately, I continue to find more and more areas with loose facets near the ground, especially in the higher terrain. Looking at the snow profile above, you can see the hand-hardness is fist+ on the basal layers near the ground. This layer is all facets. You can also easily pick out two stout melt freeze/rain crusts. These crusts add quite a bit of strength to the current structure. The overall stability is dependent on the strength of these crusts. The question is, are the crusts strong enough to support future new snow layers plus the weight of skiers or snowmobilers? Time will tell but I don't like the set up. One should never trust a snowpack that has a layer of fist hand-hardness facets buried within it.
The video below was from Big Meadow, 10,000', NE facing in lower Lake Fork, easily visible from the Miller Flat parking lot. I found loose facets like this in north facing upper elevation terrain in Pleasant Creek earlier this week. I know this stuff exists on NW, N and NE facing slopes. West and east facing terrain needs more analyzing to figure out the distribution of these buried facets. In other words, do they exist there or not? Southerly facing slopes are not much of a concern in this regard.
The photo below is at the location where I experienced a sizeable collapse with the weak layer being damp facets. 9400', N facing. The slope above me is not steep enough to avalanche.
