Shelf - Chromosome Linkup

<p>-13C at the trailhead. Yesterday's skin track was hard and mostly sidehilling until we branched off on the flats below Balu Pass. We then broke the climber's left trail to access the west shoulder of Cheops and some windslabs were encountered just before topping out. Surface hoar was noticed on the snow surface in sheltered locations until reaching Balu Pass. The west shoulder of Cheops was the usual thick slab over facets on the right and mostly windscoured on the climber's left. Tracks from yesterday indicated that a group of two had a look at Cheops North 4 (STS) but had bailed and skied back down next to the switchbacks. Above STS, we could still see remnants of old skin tracks. We mostly followed these until reaching ridgetop. We managed to keep our skis on all the way to the entrance of the Shelf where both the anchor and a small piece of cornice had to be dug to rappel into the line. From the cornice chunks we sent down, the snow in the line seemed like progressive right side up powder. This was confirmed by digging around at the bottom of the rappel and with a couple ski cuts. Ski penetration was boot top to knee deep (30-50cm!) and diligent slough management had to be done on the way down. The Shelf skied like a dream. Wind affect in the form of wind pressed snow and breakable wind crust started to be felt as soon as we got to the fan. We skied to the top of the skiers right moraine and transitioned back to skinning. We took the high traverse towards the looker's right Chromosome Couloir. Some wind and slough affected snow, i.e. mostly easily breakable 5-10cm thick non-reactive slabs, could be felt in the larger openings through the trees on the way to the entrance of the Chromosome. The Chromosome itself offered a mix bag of windpressed snow, sastrugis and wind crust until we reached the lower fan where the snow quality finally improved with up to 20cm ski penetration but it was impossible to complain after getting our main objective in such perfect conditions. We saw at least two dozen good looking tracks between the east and south aspects of Video. A group of three went for Bagheera and a group of two for the Christmas Couloir. All in all, there is some excellent skiing to be had out there on the very sheltered features and on the recently windloaded aspects. Finally, we felt a strong temperature inversion.</p>

Weather Report

<p>-13C at trailhead at the start of the day. Maybe -5C (if not warmer) at the top of our rappel. -10C back at the car.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Sunny slopes.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Deep powder, Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Warm, Sunny.