Quick report
Basically the 15 cm just below the black portion of the pole is where the wind slab is located, with low density snow above and below. Seems like if this slab failed, you would get a 3-4' crown and a pretty big avalanche. Pretty tough to ski steep terrain with something like this lurking, but low to mid angle slopes were fine today.
Snowpack
About 1" of new super-light snow fell today. Basically the top 48" of snow in mid Mineral Fork consists of a two layer cake. There is 15" or so of very low density snow sitting on top of a wind slab that was about 7" thick in the hasty pit described below. Beneath the wind slab is another 20" or so of lower density snow. Breaking trail went from upper shin deep to mid-thigh deep depending on whether the wind slab supported your weight or whether you broke through. While skiing, the slab was supportable and the skiing was fast even on lower angle slopes. Given this setup, I was expecting some cracking and settlement/collapse. We saw none. Although our visibility was limited, we also saw very little or no natural avalanches, just a few shallow sluffs near a few rock outcropings. We skied lower-angle slopes early and gradually sampled some steeper pitches and breakovers. We saw no cracking or settlement.