Pyramid

Skinned up to the top of Pyramid. A 8cm breakable rain crust covered the mountain to 1800m. Cooling temperatures over the day left the snow under the crust drier in the afternoon (-9C). In the alpine 4mm facets surround objects that poke out of the snow making boot packing difficult. Morning flurries left 1cm of snow/graupel that was transported into pockets by moderate NE winds. The winds were eroding the cornices in the alpine. There were deep glide cracks/a slide (pictured) on open E facing slopes around the alpine/tree line but whether these are recent was hard to determine with the drifting snow/crust. Skiing was terrible with the thick breakable crust making turning very difficult. There were lots of caught edges and crashes. Beautiful day to be out but skiing couldn't have been worse.