The bottom line is: the west face is skiing incredibly well. Despite warm temps throughout the day and night, clear skies have enabled solid freezing down to Hidden Valley. The freeze is fairly superficial between camp at hidden valley and 11,600, and while it was easily supporting our skins, cramponing would be a difficult mode of travel below 10,500'.
Below Hidden Valley, conditions are a different story- isothermal snow is deep and not supportable to boots, even in the early hours of the morning. In the afternoon, the "schmoo" is so deep it's nearly impossible to traverse on skis without following a previous track.
Elsewhere on the mountain, conditions are variable. Avalanche Gulch has been icy above 11k' until after noon, and variable but fun skiing below that elevation. These conditions probably existed due to strong winds up high, so with less wind expect things to be softening much earlier!
Conditions on Shasta are unique this season, but not in ways that you might expect. There is a massive amount of snow at low elevations still from the incredible snowfall totals this year. Nearly 3 weeks into May, Bunny flat is still holding over 10' of snow!
What is unexpected is how thin the mountain is up high. Shastina (the sub-peak west of Mt Shasta) is nearly bare on the west, south and east (although the north side is reportedly skiing really well). And while Brewer Creek is still inaccessible due to snow on the road, there are ridges on the face up high that were easily passable this time last year that are bony or impossible to cross this year.
Time will tell how the season will play out, but ski conditions are currently 4,000' of AWESOME on the West face!