Other than weakness in new snow, in areas out of the wind, snowpack in the areas traveled had relatively decent structure for this time of year. Hand pits and probe poling showed an increasing density profile with depth. Hasty pit posted above also showed nicely increasing density profile and no weak basal facets. Profile looks somewhat similar to Mark's observation from Butler Fork on 12/9. I didn't spend much time looking at the interfaces between old snow but did not find any obvious clean shears.

That said, in the wind, it was a totally different story. Shooting cracks were common and it was easy to trigger small wind slabs on small slopes. Bigger slopes would have easily avalanched.