Breakable crust in sweet-sixteen made for terrible skiing.
Surface crust (3-5cm thick, knife hardness) at TL made for challenging uphill progress.
Don't bother till we get new snow... I shoulda know...
Weather
Extreme W gusts (had to stop walking and brace) as we moved up the treed rib on the SE side of the col. These were short lived and we had light winds at the col. Some snow transport during the gusty periods.
Snowpack
Crust was breaking on the untracked and on the decent but not sings of instability