STS

Got a very early start to beat the rising hazard with the new snow. The carnage up Connaught is really something, and added about 45 minutes to our travel time up the valley. Cheops West ridge was dust on crust and required bootpacking from about 2150m. Moderate to strong winds on the final ridge scramble and a bad white out made it challenging to navigate the very large cornices at the entrance. Roped in and did some digging, multiple hand shears were very resistant and there was surprisingly little wind effect after what we saw on the ridge. About 30-40cm of new snow and loading since the last cycle. Overall felt very solid and right side up with no signs of instability, so we decided to send it. Snow quality was totally blower and amazing all the way down to the choke, at which point we were riding on the bed surface. Apron was horrendous and covered in huge debris, as expected. Wouldn’t have wanted to be there any later as the snow was really coming down and vis was getting worse by the minute.