Avalanche Activity in Hidden Peak Cirque

We set out from the car at 9 am that day at the Hidden Peak parking lot. We noticed that near lake level the only snow was the new snow from the storm before. As we skinned up the winds began to pick up and snow started to fall. The wind was blowing very hard bringing the visibility to close to 5 feet at times. Unfarmaliar with the area we were following an exsisting skin track. The skin track meanered into what looked like a terrain trap and as the new snow fell we started to notice the snow was much more reactive. I made the call to not continue following the exsisting skin track and instead we started to follow some mature trees thinking it would be safer. This was a bad call as it lead us directly to the bottom of the circ and what looked to be a terrain trap was actually the safer route. This was not the only bad call we made that day as about half way up the slope we noticed a small slide that had been triggered from the cliffs on the most south part of the cirque and decided to continue staying further aways from the cliff ( Again I was not farmilar with the area and did not know the cirque was directly above us due to the visibility.) 

As we skinned up we took a route that minimized our exposure but in the end we should not have been where we were. While we transitioned a felt a whomfp and there was cracking under my feet. My partner volunteered to go first and then after hearing a holler i followed his track down where they ended in the middle of a slide path. My heart sank, I panicked for a split second. I couldn't remember my partner's name in that split second while I gained my composure but soon called out to him.  He relpied back and it tured out he skied over the chunder path, which I should mention was most likely triggered when we were tansitioning.

The avlanche was D1 S1 about 30 feet wide with a six inch crown. Further more it was triggered at and are of the slope that is about 35 degrees and the path quickly ended as the terrain flattened to 20 degrees.

This was the second time in my ski career that I have triggered an avalanche and the first time I have thought that my partner might be burried. I thinkn this was a great learning experience and here is what I have drawn from the incident:

1. The terrain was new to me and I should have chosen an area that I am farmilar with. Due to the low visibility it was difficult to make the appropriate route finding decisions. The guide books I have failed to mention the cirque and I should compared maps to terrain I am farmilar with and networked more to be more aware of the avalanche terrin in that area.

2. Early on as we skinned up to the cirque we saw avalanche activity. We should have turned around then. 

3. Finally my partner skied over the avalanche path. We could have done a better job of communicating avalanche activity, it was horrifying thinking my partner was in an avalanche. I will always remember that fear and shock. Hopefully there isn't a next time, and I am glad that I felt this emotion because . It is possible that I will be able to process the inital shock a little better. 

4. Finally we ended up going back up the skin track and skiing a smillar aspect and slope but with no avalanche activity. It was interesting seeing the night and day difference but my belief is the cirque trapped more snow leading to more wind loading and a larger storm slab. There are a couple of other reasons to stay away from cliffs during avalanche activity but this obeservation was new to me.