Mount Cleveland

<p>Skied Clevelands SE summit, NE glacier and peeked into Feathers West Peak southwest couloirs today. Saw a few old avalanches on NE and N facing aspects in skiable alpine terrain. Only noted the debris which looked older than 48-hours old, did not see the crowns. Snowballing on east aspects observed with the snowballs now covered with approx 10 cms of snow. Variety of snow conditions encountered depending on aspect. In the alpine, on north and northeast aspects (Cleveland NE glacier) we found the upper snowpack to be quite dense and a ski pole wouldn't penetrate much more than 50 cms in depth. No whumpfing, cracking or hollow sounds observed. Kept to planar slopes on the ascent/descent. There was powder on the NE glacier but the SW winds really picked up in the afternoon and the powder was being transported into the basin below. Touring over to Feathers West Peak southwest couloirs, the snowpack on the SE aspect up to the ridge that joins Feather/Cleveland was variable in depth and quality. At times the midpack felt dense and in other places it was thinner and the facets/DH below were easily felt. On the ascent/descent in this area we stayed on planar slopes and stuck to pieces of terrain that appeared to have a deeper (i.e thick) snowpack. Looked into Feathers West Peak southwest couloirs and the snow in the immediate area had a thin windslab on top of harder layer overlying some weaker snow (presumably facets). The winds in the alpine were not affecting the snow below approximately 4750 ft .. at the end of the day there was still 15 cms of nice powder lower down in the basin. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Sunny slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Windy, Sunny.