We intented to ski Chilly Slabs. On our route up, we noticed some hyperlocalized cracking in the new storm snow, as well as a melt/freeze crust on SE aspects. Purely out of curiosity, we stopped to dig a pit above the N slab before skiing it. The pit results were reassuring: rightside up, PC CT24 at 150 cm, no obvious weak layer or bed surface. There were no other skiers in the zone, although there were several groups decending and ascending Rodeo Ridge to the north.

Ignoring the red (yellow?) flags from earlier, we wrongly assessed the snowpack as bombproof and decided to go ahead and ski. However, visibility rapidly declined as we were packing up. Sketched out by the potential of not being able to keep eyes on one another while skiing one at a time down our intented route, we aborted, and skied a lower angle slope with mature trees in the next drainage north, then cut back to enjoy some nice skiing (a bad call in retrospect, since we then exposed ourselves to overhead danger). On our way down, while on the prow of the adjacent subridge, we saw the toe of the avalanche pass us on our right (we didn't hear anything, just saw it pass us), with an impressive powder cloud that I manged to snap a photo of. My dog was with us and had run ahead--in line with the avalanche path--and wasn't responding to our yelling or in sight after the powder cloud cleared. After looking up, seeing the wide crown (at least 300', maybe 500+' wide, and a good 700' above us at that point), and assessing the remaining danger as low-ish, we cut onto the avalanche apron to search for signs of Deb, the dog (who was not wearing a beacon, though she does have a GPS collar that wasn't working). I quickly spotted her climbing toward us on the debris field from below, apparently unscathed, so we made our quick exit.

We're very lucky that nobody (including the dog) was hurt, and it was pretty awesome to see the slide coming down. There were some snapped small trees from the slide that we noticed on our way out that were a reminder of just how lucky we were. If the cloud hadn't come in, we probably would have skied the slope that slid or a even more consequential one, and one or more of us would most likely have been caught in the slide. We'll be picking this incident apart in our heads for a while, for sure.

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