Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Montana anymore

Triggered at least 8 avalanches large enough to bury a person or beat them badly. 

• All avalanches triggered from an upper elevation ridge on north-facing slopes. 
• Avalanches broke at skis on low-angle terrain, released remotely from 10-50 feet away, or released when overrun by debris from slides started higher. Nearby slopes cracked if they weren't steep enough to run.
• The fractures propagated very quickly - less than 2 secs to cover 200 feet - and the debris accelerated to un-escapable, trauma-inducing speeds almost immediately, because they were running on the 1/13 crust. 
• The slabs consisted of about 18 inches of fist- to 4-fnger-hard recent snow, usually packed and stiffened by winds in the top inch or two.
• The failure layer was preserved surface hoar ~ an inch above the 1/13 crust.
• Southerly slopes were a different story. We did not observe cracking or collapsing at mid or upper elevations. While tests at mid elevations did not propagate, tests on an upper-elevation southerly slope propagated with easy force (ECTPV, ECTP6x2). The difference was in the snow just above the 1/13 crust; at upper elevations, that layer was softer and much thicker, and consisted of better-preserved facets. 
• Poor visibility and flat light prevented a good view of nearby peaks. However, we did see a few crowns and/ or debris from recent large natural avalanches on north, east, and south slopes. These were likely from the past 24 hours. There may be a very large crown in upper Wahoo Creek on a northerly slope at about 6100 feet.

On Sunday, I saw similarly reactive slabs on very similar terrain. But today's slides were much larger (thickness and width) and much, much nastier. It was like being back in Colorado, without having to take a COVID test and board a plane. 

Images in the works