what I learned this winter

An important thing and one I paid a bit of discomfort for was that in this day and age there are many more inexperienced travelers just beginning to get acquainted with touring and skiing the routes in the forests and higher alpine, which I have a knowledge of for the past quarter of a century.   When following a skin track that has been set and noticing that it is not the best way up, either too high or too low a good thing to do is to veer off and into the deep snow and set the trail as one knows it should be.   The caution being that the easy to follow set track can lead one into a place of difficulty compared to the known way up, which is easy as pie.   Set the new track, break some trail when necessary for the best way up and as a guide for others who might follow.  

Yeah, this is wise advice. For those that are newer to the sport, take the time to learn the "optimal" skintracks in your favorite zones. For me, these are places in the Snoqualmie pass area like the Big Trees below Great Scott, the Phantom, Kendall, etc. Something that doesn't seem to be fully understood is setting a track to avoid overhead hazard. In the Big Trees, this is 100% possible. Yet almost every time I've gone in there this year, someone wants to skin up one of the best downhill runs which puts you directly underneath steep terrain of the Unicorn spines. Or someone skinned up No Fog, which is sometimes fine, but really isn't the best option since you are under a bunch of cliffs. And don't get me started about people who decide to climb up the Bryant couloir....

If you don't know what I'm talking about: alpental.com/greatscott.htm