This avalanche occurred at 10,198' off of the BCC/Snake Creek ridgeline on a windloaded slope. The remote trigger was a a skier (me) skinning up the ridgeline, which caused a fragile cornice to break off, which in turn released the slope. There were skiers below, but off to the side and no one was caught or carried. The slope had naturally avalanched previously, which is where we had skinned up.

In general, there was about 4-6" of new, light density snow in this area, which was prone to sluffing on steeper slopes, but otherwise stable (no cracking/collapsing) on mid to lower angle slopes. The bed surface was a VERY hard layer of sun baked snow 20-25cm down which was so firm and icy that it was hard to even skin through. The new snow itself wasn't so much of a problem as it was light density and fairly shallow, but the wind loaded areas (southish facing) were 2-3 times that deep and had set up into a firmer, more cohesive slab. The bond between the new snow and the icy bed surface is moderate (ECT test = 11) right now, but I think it will strengthen quickly on south facing slopes over the next few days if conditions remain the same.