Feather peak

Quick report

drewnylen · Nov 29, 2023 · Vancouver Island

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Quick report

Weather
sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, steepSlopes
Stayed Away
convexSlopes
Riding Quality
good
Snow Conditions
heavy, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab

A really great day out at feather peak. Road side conditions were a bit grim but as we gained elevation (200m above the road) the story started to change. Good travel with a heavy wet base covering a lot of rocks, by 1300m there is soft snow. Probed depths on feather glacier were 170cm -200cm. Pretty surprising really. There is a crust in the top 50cm in deep snowpack areas and south facing slopes look plastered with the snow from the last warm and wet storm that came through. After a day of gaining observations ( no naturals) and skiing progressively steeper lines all with 20-30cm of heavy powder with now signs of instability , we found 1 place with much lighter snow that did avalanche as we skied down. ( see avalanche tab) that avalanche was from a storm snow interface. all in all a great start to the season!

Avalanche

Run Length
80
Slab Width
20
Trigger Type
skier
Wind Exposure
noWindExposure
Avalanche Size
2
Trigger Sub Type
accidental
Start Zone Aspect
N
Start Zone Incline
35
Avalanche Character
stormSlab
Number Of Avalanches
1
Start Zone Elevation
1670
Avalanche Observation
12hrsAgo
Weak Layer Crystal Type
stormSnow
Start Zone Elevation Band
alp
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2023-11-28T23:00:00.000Z

Skiing out of a small gulley feature transitioning onto the fan, a 10-15cm very soft slab propagated away from the first skier, quite far and ran about 80m. Size 1.5 - 2. The bed surface was storm snow and so was the weak layer (density change). At 1670m this feature was North facing, and very sheltered from wind from all sides.