Observation: Chugach State Park

20cm fresh snow at trail level rising to 40cm fresh above ~3,000ft. Ski penetration while skiing down is still to the rain crust, unfortunately.
New snow is denser than “powder” but has no cohesion, hand pulls right through hand pits dug along up tracks. No sign of slabs, yet.
In hand pits, we isolated several 50cm x 50cm blocks of new snow above the recent rain crust ->. new snow is well bonded. We could not get the new snow to slide off the crust.

No wind at trail level. Wind was light and variable above 3,500′. Barely any snow transport happening at ridgeline.
When the wind eventually turns on there is a lot of snow available to form new wind slabs, and the loose snow on the rain crust might make a nice weak layer for slides to form on.