Investigating Storm Snow

I went out to Castle Pass area today to investigate the recent storm stability and take advantage of a small break in the stormy weather.  The temperatures were below freezing, sky was scattered clouds with Castle Peak being obscured for the entirety of the day.  Winds were light below treeline but were moderate with strong gusts out of the east near and above treeline.  Below treeline the snow in protected areas was still very powdery and unsupportable, which made for challenging trail breaking.  I dug a quick pit to look at storm density, the storm snow was right side up.  I performed a compression test and got two sudden planer results, one 10cm down and the next 55 cm down.  I moved up in elevation and experienced the strong east winds that were blowing snow and creating a challenging to ski through 3-4 inch wind crust.