Feather Peak east ridge

<p> Skied a few short runs on the ridge east of feather peak. There was moderate south west winds and a temp of -5C. Some cornices have formed on the lee side ( north) of the lower slopes of the ridge. It looked as though one of these cornices had collapsed and formed a size 1 avalanche sometime in the last week. We climbed up the ridge south of the notch to avoid skinning below these loaded features. We dug a hasty pit at 1350M north east aspect. ( above the feather notch) We observed 30cm of soft powder snow on top of a 50mm thick pencil hard crust. This crust is fairly rough at the top of bottom. It seems like a mixture of ice and air pockets. Possibly a rain or thermal crust? On top of possibly some more fairly recent storm snow, on top of a thick wind compressed mid layer. The soft storm snow failed (dropped) on CT moderate but did not slide on the crust. The 30cm soft storm snow did not seem to be acting as a cohesive layer. We did not make it all the way back to the feather peak skiers slope as the visibility got worse as weather moved in from the south west. We did not dig a pit at our highest elevation (1550M North aspect) but the hard crust did not seem to be as noticeable with ski pole probing. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Windy, Cloudy.