I have a few questions about this beautiful peak:
-has anyone been close to the area in the last couple weeks and knows about the snow conditions (I heard snowfall last week)? I've seen some of the recent trip reports (e.g. Langley on this site) and it looks to be <1-2 feet snow even above 12000'? i also don't want to be climbing on water ice
-i'll be going solo and trying to get more practice on steeper snow, having done u notch on N Pal and cox col (though on cox col i exited to rock on climber's right about 50' from the top). i felt pretty secure on u notch, while the last 50' of cox col were much steeper than i was ready to solo at the time. i know that the answer to this next question will be subjective, but how does feather peak's couloir compare? maybe i'll just have to go and see for myself
-does anyone have photos of the ~70' class 4 segment at top of couloir. aside from bob burd's excellent trip reports and secor's book, there aren't many photos. i've soloed the 15 ft class 4 at top of cathedral peak, which was pretty scary. just wondering how the class 4 on feather compares and whether one can bail at the top of the couloir onto maybe 3rd class? SW face if necessary
Thanks!