Solid ice at Hero’s Knob

Brutal conditions at Hero’s knob. Extremely wind affected and icy. We had initially thought about doing the purple/hero traverse, but ended up just doing The regular Hero’s loop. We were glad we didn’t do purple as there was a ton of exposed rock at the top (pic 4). Top of sweet 16 was rock solid, which turned into most of a crust towards the bottom that would break through on turns and try to claim your ankles. Snow was hard as cement, which was good for stability I guess. We need some more snow before the skiing will be good again. This crust will be a good base for future snow fall, but could also be something for new snow to slide on if we get a weak layer on top of it.