We came upon this slide on Sunday 1/10, but it was obvious that it was at least a day or two old, if not older. It was a prime example of the avalanche problem of this season - a slab failing on the old faceted snow. The avalanche broke from just off the ridge and ran until the bench below the upper gladed headwall. The slide exposed the rocks and earth below the bed surface. It took out trees that appeared to be 12 inches in diameter. While this wasn't a huge slide, it would certainly have been a very painful if not deadly ride. There were maybe four sets of tracks altogether in E. Mineral, and it looked like some might have skied down the slide path. Perhaps they triggered it from the ridge?

We observed this slide first from the ridge between Georges and Mid Ivory during our approach. These steep trees were our area of concern of the day and seeing the avalanche reinforced the point that steep shady terrain is off limits. We proceeded down our run with caution and gave steep roll overs a wide berth. There were no other noted signs of instability, besides a poor snow structure observed via pole pen.