flat light and bumpy skiing

Natural avalanche observed, see next tab for details. Map pin notes avalanche crown. Non-avalanche near miss described in incident tab. Tour up to Cleveland NE glacier. Temp steady -15c, strong N winds from valley to 1300m. Snow transport throughout the day. While climbing we observed south winds at summit / clouds, which we experienced later. This reversing pattern (N outflow at lower elevation and S at higher elevation) was helpful to observe and we adjusted our model of loading by elevation. Ski pen. 10-15 cm below 1300m, 5 cm 1300-1500 with no significant soft snow above that. Once on the glacier plateau at 1600 sastrugi present, 5-15 cm high. At 1800 m (summit ridge notch) HS 1.05m with a hard crust burried 35cm down. observed greater snow loading on north aspects (Cleveland in photo 4, Feather peak in photo 3) Skiing was ok to good. The sastrugi had soft snow between ridges and skied alright, from 1500 down the snow was windpressed powder, consistent and was fun, no crust. Lower, in sheltered areas the soft snow was fun. The best skiing likely continues to be found in sheltered areas around treeline. Some wind slab present on the ascent, hard on N -NE aspects in the alpine and soft cake forming on S (lee) aspects of many terrain features around 1200m in the canyon.

Avalanche observed, photos 1 & 2. Crown estimated to be 1.5m on lookers left, decreasing to the right. Crow approx 75m wide, debris and observed slide path much wider. Avalanche ran to the drainage bottom, and 80 m up the other side, noted large rocks entrained upslope. Estimated date between 2-5 days prior to observation on January 20th. Aspect and elevation consistent with Field Team and Hot Zone obs/forecast.

Near miss while descending in the canyon, exiting south to the creek. While descending/ traversing on the west canyon wall, snow collapsed under my feet. On our ascent we had noted large void spaces around rocks that were being bridged by snow transport. As I descended with a side slip to pause and plan a route down, the snow broke under my skis. My upslope hip and shoulder caught me in the snow, and then my shoulder broke through. I was on a snow bridge between the cliff face (canyon wall) and the snow slope over a large void between the cliff and the snow. The cliff face was an arms length upslope, and the solid snow slope about 50 cm beyond my feet. I was able to lift my feet and pivot my skis out of the hole and towards the slope and throw myself downhill onto my skis. Hard to know how deep the void ran down along the cliff edge, all I could see was dark. Though we had identified voids around boulders and avoided skiing too close to snow covered rocks, I had not identified the canyon wall as a place for a large void to form and be bridged. Assessing before dropping and not pausing on a steep (even small) feature could have prevented a situation like this.