Travel today was up Mill D to Reynolds Peak. Our first stop was the most northerly slide path on the ridge line, probably the steepest path on the shoulder. We wanted to see how the new snow was bonding to the old surface so we decided to throw in a few ski cuts in the starting zone. Theses ski cuts initiated long and fast running sluffs. The sluffs were starting in the faceted snow sitting on last weeks rain/rime crust then steeping down almost immediately to the slick bed surface. The sluffs were not propagating or doing much cracking and behaving like sluffs not avalanches. We then proceeded up to the main bowl and remotely triggered a real avalanche that I put on the avalanche list that cracked out and propagated 100 or so feet up the ridge line. My theory it's that the denser layer of snow/rime crust on the surface formed a more of a connected slab and caused this type of soft slab avalanche instead of narrow long running sluffs, that we were experiencing earlier in the day, just a theory though.

photos: long running sluffs from ski cuts and a video showing there speed

I would think the hazard would be in the moderate category tomorrow unless we receive more snow and wind over night, considerable if we do