Found a few signs of instability

We went looking for good, safe skiing in the Middle Fork and found conditions very similar to those described by the BNSF Avalanche Safety crew yesterday, with a few exceptions.

• We saw a lot of fresh natural and skier triggerd sluffs, but no slab avalanche activity. The sluffs we saw were all small. The ones we saw ran mostly at middle elevations on E, SE, and NW aspects. We saw a few, isolated sluffs high on the east face of Nyack. We triggered a few small loose wet avalanches on true north at lower elevations on our way out in the early afternoon.
• We did a few snowpack tests to look at the 3/24 interface. We got a propagating test result on a NE aspect at around 5800'. A second test at this location only propagated with loading beyond what is normal for an extended column test. However, we also got a small collapse and short shooting cracks nearby. Our other test at 5300' was above the 3/29 rain line, but did not show propagation on the 3/24 interface.
• Given our collapse, cracking, and propagating test result, along with the recent skier triggerd avalanches on the same interface, and the spotty nature of the problem, we skied very low angle terrain to around 5500' where we cautiously stepped out onto steeper slopes. We skied sheltered, north facing aspects the whole way up and down. Skiing was excellent above about 4000', where it was transitioning to sticky and moist by 1:30pm.