Castlecrag fit for a king

Chanced a dance with freezing levels today at Castlecrag and we were not disappointed! Our trip started in the rain, with the snow-covered East Fork making for fast sled travel. Carbides were hitting rock here and there on our way back. By about 800 m, raindrops mercifully transformed to snowflakes and we saw rain at only slightly higher elevation on our way back. A pleasant surprise. At roughly 1150 m, where we transitioned to skis, we found an impressive 20 cm of new snow in open areas and 5-20 under the forest canopy. It skied amazingly but was definitely heavy below 1300 m. The new snow reacted sluggishly to ski cutting and to stomps on our kick turn corners. Fractures appeared and the snow would peel away from the crust, just not very energetically. Things were a bit more reactive below that 1300 m mark where temperatures hovered just below 0 degrees Celsius. We experienced very calm winds at our elevation so no wind transport where we were. Up higher? Probably!