"This big fluffy wave of ice coming towards me, and [it had] no sound – it was all quiet."
Morgan was picked up and sent tumbling about 200m down the mountain.
She managed to keep hold of her ice axe and "swim" with her other hand in the hope of keeping an air pocket around her.
"I know I've been told I've done the right thing and I swam and did this and that," she said.
But "none of us had any control over it".
When she slid to a halt, she was amazed to realise: "Oh, I've got air – I can breathe".
To her further relief, her emergency beacon was still in her pocket and she set it off before trying to dig herself out.
For the next hour or so, she struggled to get free.
Luckily, her mouth had been near the surface of the snow, but freeing her legs in the shifting lose powder was much harder.
There was also no sign of Maier or Hess.
She poked around with her ice axe, but feared she might trigger a new avalanche or fall into a crevasse.
Then "bizarrely", as she continued to dig herself out in the dark, high on mountain, her mobile phone rang.
It was the rescue authority asking what had happened.
"I said the boys must be gone – I couldn't see any way [they had escaped] unless they had a mouth out in which case they would be shouting," she told them.
It would soon become clear that Maier and Hess had died in the tragedy.
Morgan was very close to the pair.
She had been climbing with Maier, in particular, for many years, while Hess joined the team to help them tackle the difficult climb of Mt Hicks.
Last year, the pair had effectively saved Morgan's life when they pulled her from a crevasse.
"They were amazing people and much loved by their families and the climbing community," she said.
Just a week before the trio flew out for the Mt Hicks climb, Hess had held a "wonderful" 50th birthday in New Zealand that led "every man and their dog" to go to central Otago for the festivities.
Hess' parents had also flown in from Germany, giving Morgan the chance to spend some time with them before the tragedy.
Now she was struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.
"I haven't had so many hugs in years – it's been amazing, the support," she said.
"With that goes the feeling that knowing there are these families out there that are absolutely grieving and shocked."
The trio had not reached the summit of Mt Hicks before the avalanche struck and when asked by du Plessis-Allan if she would ever try again, Morgan said she didn't "really have any inclination".
"I can't think of going up mountains with anyone but Wolfgang because he was always my real anchor," she said.
"Whether at some stage - if the conditions look absolutely amazing - I would do it, I can't tell.
"If I did do it – it would have to be in memory of those boys.
"Maybe the other way to go is to leave it there as a closed book.
"It's shrugged me off, Hicks doesn't want me."
