After the alder bashing we skied

Still pretty aldery getting up the Middle Dore but we fought our way through the jungle and found some decent skiing up there. At 1300m a quick pit uncovered a surface hoar + rain crust combo down 40cm that wasn't very confidence inspiring. We picked a conservative uptrack and dug again at tree line at 1800m on a north facing slope. There we found the rain crust down 65cm and well bonded to the snow around it, as well as no sign of surface hoar. Seems like the surface hoar instability is spotty in the area and may require some investigating prior to jumping on to big slopes - especially in sheltered spots below treeline. We saw no signs of slab avalanches, just some loose dry sluffs out of steep alpine terrain. The weather was squally with short intense snow storms on and off throughout the day. The skiing was fast and fun with 5-10cm of soft powder over a supportive snowpack.