Today our party stuck to north facing terrain between 5,000' and 7200' in the Essex area. Winds were continuosly moderate throughout the day with regular strong gusts- likely in the 40 mph range, if not higher. This turned us around before reaching the top of our objective, as it was strikingly obvious that higer N faces were getting rapidly loaded. We stuck to the trim lines of sparsely treed ribs, where skiing was variable but surprisingly fun. Soft turns were still found top to bottom without encountering anything wind-scoured. Thanks to the strong winds we experienced everything from 1 inch wind skins to harder slabs upwards of 8" thick. We had no other obvious signs of instability, and other than a small point release from a cornice across the drainage, saw no new natural avalance activity (even from the past week). Despite south aspects seeing sun for the first half of the day, few rollerballs or loose wet activity was observed even on steep solar aspects. Lower in the drainage, in more sheltered areas, the sking was better yet nothing was left unspared from the wind!
