Increasing NE winds and Blowing Snow on the West Shore

We toured at Rubicon Peak today.  Calm conditions were present in the morning at the trailhead.  As we moved up into more open terrain, NE winds increased and temperatures decreased.  The NE winds were starting to add a little wind texture on an exposed ridge at 8000', with more wind scouring as we approached the upper mountain and peak.  Blowing snow and wind scouring were forming new small wind slabs in this area on N aspects.  Some of these wind slabs were cracking and failing under the weight of a skier.  We dug a snowpit at 8000' to look at the recent storm snow and the Feb 21 new snow/old snow interface ( at noted lat/long).  The storm snow is right side up and was showing no signs of instability.  The old snow surface had a melt freeze crust with some less dense and weaker snow below it.  This layer failed easily with a deep tap test (DTV).  This layer is buried down now almost 200cm deep with very strong snow above it making it very difficult to initiate this weak layer.  We had some good views from the peak and did not see any avalanche activity.