Suffering in the Coast Mountains on Skis

Drove up Branch 200 to 840m with chains. Theres a pretty big washout at 700m but a 4runner and xterra made it up fine. The snow on the way in was very heavy and wet. Most likely because it was all south facing and baking in the sun, but it was significantly heavier than snow just east of Squamish yesterday. We noticed some hoar frost in sheltered treed areas. After struggling through trees we found lighter snow 1500m and up on western aspects. Everything up there is pretty bony and we werent able to ski much in the alpine.