We ended up seeing more signs of stability back in the Haystack Gully than we expected. There was less of a crust on the old snow surface than in other areas, the new snow was not very slabby, and the snowpack felt very consolidated and fairly uniform down to the base. Winds were moving snow off of the slope, not loading the slope. So a couple things lined up.

I also spent some time trying to understand if the slope had failed on a PWL earlier in the season, in which case that would be a red flag for stability of the slope. As we kept stepping out, we kept feeling snow depths to try and gauge. It was maybe hard to conclude, but with N Haystack being out of view of normal avalanche reporting, it was something to pay attention to.