Enough crust to feed an army

We chose a popular trail in the Middle Fork to provide for relatively safe egress during our current thaw cycle. 

• An avalanche large enough to bury, injure or kill a person left wet debris across the trail in the thick forest several hundred yards above the wilderness boundary. This covered 40 feet of the trail, but, more impressively, debris was 250 feet wide immediately above the trail. This path is not obvious, and I believe it last impacted the trail 2 years ago as a dry storm slab.
• We found an unsupportable melt-freeze crust on all aspects below 5500 feet. We assume this breakable crust extends to at least ridgeline elevation on southerly aspects. This crust was several inches thick at low-elevations and thinned with elevation.
• Shaded slopes above 5500 feet held dry surface snow. Steep northwest aspects contained a thin (<one inch) crust.
• Besides the previously mentioned slide, minimal avalanche activity was noted in the basin. We only observed large rollerballs and a couple of small wet loose slides.
• We ascended and descended a north-facing ridge and did not notice collapsing or cracking.