East Cheops/Hourglass

Went for an adventure on the East slopes of Cheops to check things out. Still pretty bushy up there but nice skiing in the trees. Some evidence of avalanche activity to size 2 from last weekends storms. The Cheops East path had debris in it and it looked like the cornices may have recently failed. We dug a pit at 2000 m and found the surface hoar layer down 55 cms and it was producing hard sudden planer results (see snowpack tab for nerdy details). The surface hoar looked rhymed and wasn’t well preserved but it was there! Cloudy, warm and not much for wind. A light snowfall mid day.