Flanders Peak, Hyalite

Yesterday I toured up Flanders Peak via Flanders Creek Basin. In an exploratory gesture, I ascended via the East ridge. At approximately 9300" we dug a pit since we were setting through very variable conditions. Much of the snow was unconsolidated sugary facets all the way to the ground (approximately 95cm) underneath the new snow and we were sinking straight through to the ground as we set. However, anything slightly east south-east facing developed a nasty sun crust that was strong enough to support our weight. This was the layer we were concerned about, and while we could not get it to propagate (ETCN) in our tests, it's location (sandwiched between the new snow and the deep sugary facet base) raised some red flags for us in the future about how it would react to a heavier load piles on top of that crust. We did not ski that aspect. Instead, we skied the south-east bowl but stuck to the east aspect of the bowl. The aspect we skied in the bowl did not have that same sun crust. However, we noticed significant wind-loading the top 20 feet of the entire ridge-line and several small cornice collapses off the eastern side of the ridge. There was a significant wind crust as well (approximately 10cm), which makes sense with how windy it has been this past week. Once again, I'm sorry I have no photos to include. My phone dies in the wind.