Day off ski day. - At low elevations on the approach we noticed shallow 2 to 4-inch soft slabs on road cuts. Widespread loose dry and soft slab avalanche activity at mid and upper elevations. Though most were relatively harmless in size, just about everything 35 degrees and steeper slid.
- Two larger paths that we observed from a distance had debris piles large enough to bury or injure a person.
- We remotely triggered a cornice failure that then triggered a wind slab below the ridgeline. The debris pile was not large enough to fully bury a person, but the chunks from the cornice failure could have easily injured someone.
- Test slopes had minor cracking in new snow and light to moderate wind transport at ridgelines.
Decision making was easy after seeing active wind loading and remotely triggering a cornice failure. We descended our skin track to the last sheltered location and rode the slope from there.
Debris piles were noted on all aspects at mid and upper elevations.
Triggered from 15 feet away. The wind slab was isolated to just below the ridgeline and up to a foot deep. Entrained the 3 to 6 inches of new snow on the way down. Debris depths were likely 2 to 3 feet deep. I would have spent more time here but I double ejected after hitting a log buried beneath 2 feet of snow.
Two observed from across the valley.
