Got lots of cracking on route to Rudy's Flat and skinned above it in an attempt to gain the ridge, but stopped before it got too steep. My mind may have been playing tricks on me, but I thought I heard some collapsing too before Rudy's and saw some cracks open up far above me (not on a slope steep enough to slide, of course.) I resolved to turn back based on UAC's danger ratings, my own observations up to that point, plus my thinking that I may have heard another collapse, but decided to do a pit before leaving. I found the new snow (about a foot) over pure sugar (about half a foot) over a knife-hard crust (another half a foot of that.) It was the perfect layup for a slab avalanche. (New snow = slab; sugar = weak layer; crust = bed-surface.) I got an ECTP19 out of the pit, failing on the sugar where it meets the new snow. This just confirmed my decision to turn back.

Looking ahead, I'll probably wait another month and several storms before returning, and then I'd like to see how the PWL is doing. There is no way to gain the ridge without being exposed to some slopes that can slide.