Took advantage of the "green light" conditions (due to the mid week rain/warm-up) and traveled to a higher elevation west of Essex. We slimbed & skied steeper terrain than we did last weekend, before our "capping".
Toured up to 7400' on a north-facing aspect... initially thinking we might not make it that high, or at least find less-than-desirable conditions for the down. There was everything from a crust (about 5 cm pencil hard) to a thin ice-skin all the way to our high point.
Skinning up I was able to break through the crust and have good traction to skin steeper kick turns. We skinned to 7400' without ski pons due to being able to stomp through the crust, or get an edge in, the whole way. Again, North facing the whole way.
We were plesantly surprised on our descent, skiing supportable snow surface top to bottom. We found some wind buff at the top, followed by carvable crust and some soft that had been blown into pockets here and there. About as good as you can find given the current circumstances - smooth and supportable, can't ask for much more right now.
