Spatial variability!

Spatial variability was the theme today. We experienced extreme winds on the Dome and the Zimacord ridge today and had to change our main objective due to intense wind loading in the northern aspect we were aiming to ski. We skied North Bowl and Powder Eights to quickly retreat from the cold, extreme winds and skied cross-loaded variable snow to valley bottom. The new storm snow, with the help of the wind, quickly rose to 40cm in the sub-alpine and alpine. We had our best and safest turns in the knolls/burnt trees with an also variable upper snowpack of sometimes 5cm of new snow to about 20cm in places. The new snow has a really low density and skis go right down to the rain crust that has become the bed surface today.