This is a picture of a cornice on the E facing side of the S ridge of Mt. Aire. It cracked and broke away when deliberately stepped on by an earlier party, but did not run far or trigger anything below it. Wind deposition from Tuesday night is present but manageable.

I used the wind scoured ridge to reach the summit with minimal difficulty. Testing the snow down off the ridge on the way up resulted in cracking in only one isolated spot. In general, even the wind deposition had little mass (about 4" thick) and was sufficiently bonded to prevent failure. I observed several tracks from earlier in the morning on the E facing runs coming down from the summit with no evidence of slab avalanches even in the boldest lines. My party chose a moderate angled descent off the NE ridge to completely avoid the wind deposition, and found the snow down off the ridge to be well bonded settled powder with no signs of instability.