Intentional trigger,but surprised us a bit anyway. Pretty sensitive hard and fairly thin wind slab, failed with stomp on ridge-top. Avalanche was in the skiers right fork in the Y-Gully. Could've taken a person for a ride, with stiff chunks gaining speed quickly. Recently formed wind slab failed on sugary near surface facets.

In sheltered shady terrain we found some well developed and intact feathery surface hoar or frost crystals on the snow surface. These and/or the sugary facets just below may well become a persistent weak layer when buried and then overloaded.