Spent two days ski touring on the Duffey Lake road in the drainage on the NE side of Cayoosh.

The first day (Jan 11th) was spent guiding and involved climbing over the NE glacier and skiing down the Armchair Glacier on Mt Cayoosh.

The second day (Jan 12th) was with my dad and involved climbing to the 7-Mile/Cayoosh Creek col and gaining the ridge at the top of "Honey Bronzed and Very Desirable" and "Rock 'N Roll". We followed the ridge east before skiing a south facing 800m run we dubbed "Jazz".

Despite intense alpine NE winds on Wednesday, minimal wind effect (if any) from the recent winds were felt in the snow in the Cayoosh area. This leaves 15 or so centimeters of preserved low-density powder on top of a variety of old surfaces.
Those old surfaces include impenetrable windslabs from the previous high pressure N wind events in early January and facetted snow. Surface hoar from 1 to 3mm can be seen growing at TL and below. Given the hardness of old windslabs near ridge tops, we spent time boot packing but ski crampons would have been ideal.

On solar aspects, a sun crust has developed but northerly aspects have fantastic fast powder still. The NE glacier still has crevasses present on the skiers right side (see image) but is otherwise well filled in. 2 meters of snow was probed covering the ice on the upper reaches of the glacier.

Few avalanches were observed other than old windslabs from past storm cycle and solar induces sluffing from steep rocky or tree'd start zones.
Old windslabs are well consolidated and deeper layers are providing little to no concern. In areas where recent wind effect is not present, the avalanche risk is low.

For more photos of Jan 11th : https://www.flickr.com/photos/samckoy/sets/72157677350124001
For more photos of Jan 12th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/samckoy/sets/72157675409969333

Make sure to evaluate your slopes and watch for changes during your day.
Have fun out there!

Sam McKoy
www.sammckoy.com