Just a quick post to let people know that the skiing at Feather Peak was great on Sunday. We did no extensive (pit) analysis or tests but visual observations of indicators, quick pits, pole probing, etc.. all indicated that stability was reasonable. (I give it Moderate with areas of Considerable)
Skied from the parking area up through the notch (different parties took each side of the notch on the way in) to the entrance to the bowl in poor visibility ranging from simply poor to complete whiteout - about -8C with light North wind. The first party in ahead of us set a great uptrack considering the vis! (Thanks). Halfway up the bowl we cleared the clouds an entered a layer that was clear and sunny but with stronger North wind (approx 20km but perhaps 40km at the col) and substantially colder (-15C?). Challenging for some mebers of our party (hands, face, etc..)
Skied a few runs in there in nice wind densified powder ranging from pretty good to really nice! Ski pen about 15cm.
A couple of quick pits showed weaknesses at about 25 and 45cm with 10-15cm light low-density wind slab on each. Not a great deal of cohesion in the slabs and the weak layers (likely surface hoar) had some level of bonding.
Witnessed a lone skier bootpack up the north side of the subpeak on climbers right. Upon decent, he appeared to release a small slab that ran out as a 0.5 sluff. He worked his way the rest of the way down without consequence or further incident.
Play safe out there, enjoy the early season skiing and remember the Backcountry Avalanche Workshop in Whitehorse this weekend!