Paddy's Peak North Face

Went up to check the Paddy's North Couloirs last Thursday. Weather was cloudy and the summit was mainly in the clouds but visibility was decent considering the bad weather in the last week. Couloirs look good, fairly well filled-in (up to 3 m snow pack on the fan and bowl below) and snow quality was pretty good (windpress with nice soft-ish layer on top). Before committing to any of the lines we dug 2 pits (on the fan of two different couloirs) and did 2 compression test on each pit, angle of slope average 35 degrees, 1750 m elevation, north aspect. We found a fairly reactive weak layer of small rounded facets above a wind crust (between 40 and 60 cm, 1F to pencil hard): CTM 14 (SP), CTM 12 (RP), CTE 4 (SP), CTM 11 (SP). Not what we expected of course, we quietly walked away with thoughts of coming back in better days. None of the couloirs had slid recently. Also observed a few small size 1 lower down in the valley around 1400 m elevation, either cross-loaded slopes or small cornice collapse. Moist snow was observed up to about 1600 m.