Heading up to ski Superior this morning I observed a wind loaded soft slab avalanche with a skintrack leading into it. It appeared that the touring party of 2 (ahead of me) were attempting to put the skin track out on to the south face to avoid a steeper narrow ridgeline section that would need to be bootpacked.

While they were not in sight at the time I came up to the avalanche. Their tracks continued up the ridge so I knew it wasn't likely that anyone was caught. Later at the top, I spoke to the leader and he told me at the time of the event he was about 15 ft out on to the slope when the broke under his feet. His partner had wisely stayed behind at the rock in a safe spot. The leader said it was a really scary when it broke but he did not get caught. However, if the slide had broke above him it's likely he would have been swept over the cliffs below. The slide broke on the face just down ridge from Chicken Chute.

The slide picked up other loose new snow and ran over half way down the Superior depositing a sizeable debree field.

Per the Utah avalanche website this morning, this scenario was Avalanche problem #1. Strong winds from the West and North from the recent storm and overnight that deposited snow onto the South face.

Further up the slope, I was able to do some tests on the South facing snow. Even putting my ski 6" over onto the south side instantly produced a spider web of cracks in the wind deposited snow. Forecast was spot on.

Submitting this observation as it was not clear if the party had planned to follow up with a report. They did say they would call the Avy center to let them know that know one was caught in the slide.