Top snow profile - boring...- shows 20cm of facets at the base of a 120cm snowpack that is representative of near the starting zone - No Results, even after more than 30 taps, the Wendy Wagner AK heel-drop boot test, and so on. Difficult to trigger an avalanche here. Lower profile - way more exciting - full propagation there on a 30cm 1-finger slab over 30cm of fist facets. 60cm total snowpack. This...or nearby....as shown in the photo below is most likely where the avalanche was triggered - there from below.

Years ago, UAC forecasters Craig Gordon and Evelyn Lees went to investigate a similar avalanche in almost the same spot...They were accessing it from looker's right and determined that there was too much snow hanging above the avalanche (similar to today). While they were - as depicted by XX - they collapsed the slope and triggered a significantly larger avalanche that would not be characterized as just hangfire - there as shown in the photo under the blue line. Good judgement, good terrain selection.

Interesting to note other terrain choices by a snowmobiler there beneath Scott Peak - perhaps the entirety of the snowpack was deep/thick enough to not trigger the slide (similar to the first snow profile noted, above).

This is what is difficult with both forecasting and go/no go choices in the backcountry these days - low probability/high consequence...and where is the trigger point? Thinner rocky spots - but sometimes it is difficult to tell where those may be. Perhaps at this week's Outdoor Retailer show they'll have some X-Ray goggles -

Cracking propagated 3-400' away through the slab -

Not the first time this path has run - trees offer a good clue to the past -