Skunked by snow, but not skunked by wind

We toured into the Middle Fork to monitor wind slab formation and observe how much loose snow is on the surface in advance of tomorrow's sunny, warm weather

• A trace of new snow today (less than forecast) limited snow available for transport, especially at low and mid-elevations.  However, today's winds were strong enough to rake transportable snow from high elevations and mid-elevation northerlies, where there was still some soft snow.
• We saw steady plumes of blowing snow off of the high peaks, and occasional gusts of blowing snow at mid elevations.  Where we traveled at mid elevations, we experienced pulses of strong gusts between calm lulls.  
• At mid-elevations, we found small pockets of fresh wind slab scattered near an exposed ridgeline.  Drifts became increasingly denser and thicker with elevation, up to 18" and 1F hard.  Test slopes produced cracking and slab releases with some amount of stomping or undercutting.   We didn't travel above 6,400', but suspect slabs were larger and more widespread in the alpine, based on blowing snow observations. 
• On southerly aspects where winds haven't done work, there is about an inch of soft snow over the last sun crust, which is supportive and up to several inches thick.  The snow surface is still dry and relatively soft above 5,000 feet on northerly aspects, although it has become denser from winds and settlement (4F- on average).  Neither of these surfaces are overly worrisome for loose wet concerns.  Below 4500' on all aspects, the snowpack is saturated throughout and saw a negligible refreeze last night, but it appears the wetting front has passed through and the snowpack is now fairly robust to wet concerns.  
• We skied steep terrain at mid-elevations while keeping an eye out for and avoiding the obvious lobes of wind drifted snow, which were rare once we dropped below ridge crest.