Snow was fine down low, nice and firm. There was no evidence of recent slide activity and we were comfortable on it. There were chunks that may have been from an old slide, but nothing recent. As we got into the hourglass constriction it turned to ice. We did a lot of front-pointing with our crampons and used the picks on out axes quite extensively. Above the constriction the snow is better, but we took a line up the west ridge. The melting snow is causing a lot of spontaneous rockfall. We rapped down the constriction because the sun hadn't softened it up enough.
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