We were breaking trail and skinning up the sub-ridge that separates Mid East from Lower East Mineral and saw the crown to the south in Mid East Mineral. We didn't go over to examine the crown due to the hang fire above, but it was clearly just the new snow and didn't step down into older snow. There wasn't much, if any, new snow on the debris and the crown wasn't filled in, so we believe it ran Friday afternoon, not much before we arrived in the area. It was difficult to estimate how far the debris extended down the slope as it ran into dense trees. The presence of this small, but problematic avalanche in the new snow had us recalibrate the slope angle of our skiing.

There was about 14" of new snow with little or no wind effect in the lower portion of Mineral Fork. The snow was very dense and had little cohesion. The skiing was surfy but somewhat slow motion unless you were on something steep. It felt like skiing sand.