Nice adventure. Right call on coming back down, given the storm approaching. Personally, I dread coming downhill with a backpack in fresh deep powder unless I'm on snowshoes - I hyper-extended a knee doing that and it was painful. Then there's the possibility of whiteout conditions - seems likely given the winds you describe.
Your trip report gets me excited about snowshoeing in the local Tahoe mountains very soon. It's been a long wait but we're getting good precip right now.
