Snow Doughnuts in the Sugarbowl

Some crazy strong southwesterly winds last night made for some not-so-great, firm and slabby ski conditions at upper elevations, but managed to carve out some neat shapes from old ski tracks and pole marks. The best skiing was between 1600-1200m. Below 1200m there is a rain crust that makes for some crunchy turns. We dug a quick pit at ridgetop and found a buried layer of surface hoar down 50cm. While it didnt appear very reactive in our tests we didn't trust it and picked a conservative mellow line down the bowl. Some great turns to be had in the sheltered trees where the powder is still soft! We saw no signs of recent avalanches in the area except for what appeared to be a size 2 slide that we saw from the highway near Dome Creek during the drive.