It ain't over till the bugs come out

Attempted to romance a NE couloir, but visibility above treeline was severely limited, so we enjoyed a few treeline laps. The two east facing slopes we rode had around 5cm of new snow in the open from alpine to treeline, and 15cm in sheltered pockets around the trees. The crust below was very present while skiing, and made for some slippery skinning at times. Hand shears were soft and crumbly and we found no definitive weaker layer between the crust and the new snow. Gave some fresh cornices and wind loaded ridges a good stomp, and there was no energy transfer across the ~24-48hr formations. Seemed like the snow temperature was increasing throughout the day alongside the air temperature, almost to the point of roller-balls as we made our exit.