We encountered several instances of whumpfing as soon as we left the Balu Pass Trail and started heading up into the bowl, at around 1,600m. No shooting cracks. By the time we got up to 1,650m there was no more whumpfing.
We dug a rough pit around 1,750m and couldn't find any evidence of the persistent slab.
We ascended to 1,950m and snowpack was right-side-up all the way with no wind slab.
Beautiful snow the whole way down despite the poor visibility and flat light. We experienced some sloughing on the way down the steeper NW aspect at 1,750m.
There was some snow showering down from the NE side of Cheops in the afternoon.