We triggered some collapses and cracking.  The deepest shooting cracks were around a foot deep and some were close to 20 feet wide.  Well developed facets up to around 4 mm in size under a thin melt-freeze crust and capping the solid early October snow make up the most obvious culprit weak layer, but in other areas, we  found a another weakness with smaller faceted grains a bit higher in the snowpack.

Bottom Line: buried persistent weak layers are present on slopes with preexisting snow, and heavy snowfall forecast for the weekend will likely result in avalanches at high elevations on shady slopes....