We skied in the Ursus/Hospital Bowl area yesterday, November 27.

The primary hazard was the relatively thin show conditions, especially in thicker trees and valley bottom. Getting down Hospital Gully was rugged with the snow scraped down to the ice crust in places and moguls due to the limited exit points for the groups skiing in that area. The valley bottom was not too bad but there are a few creek ditches you need to be heads up for.

We did not ski above treeline though, and avalanche conditions in the alpine would have been touchy. It was snowing 1-2 cm per hour for a good part of the day and we could hear winds in the alpine. We heard numerous avalanches across the valley on the very steep alpine terrain of Cheops. We couldn't see them because of poor visibility, but suspect they were size 2 avalanches triggered by wind and snow loading. On the Ursus side we observed a couple of thin windslabs and loose snow avalanches to size 1 on a steep SW aspect in the alpine.

We dug a profile at about 2050 m on a SE aspect, in a wind loaded area. There was 170 cm of snow and 90 cm on top of the November 13 melt freeze crust. There were no results with tap tests. The snow that has fallen since November 13 showed a positive resistance profile with fist strength snow slowly turning to 1 Finger on top of the crust.

As a side note - if you see someone digging a profile don't be afraid to ask what they are seeing. 15 people toured past us while we were in the profile and only one person asked what we saw...