We went south looking for cold, fluffy powder. Instead we found a thick melt-freeze crust under a dusting of new snow. The climbing was that challenging type of skinning where skis have to be edged just perfectly to get traction. Lean one way and you’re sliding sideways downhill. Lean the other way and, well, same result. It’s the skiing equivalent of climbing offwidth: usually unpleasant and insecure but punctuated by moments of enjoying the challenge.

The ski down wasn’t really that much better. Dodging frozen debris chunks and jump turning runnels has some appeal, though you need to have a pretty obsessive appreciation for skiing to see it that way. It was probably good training for spring mountaineering, or something.