No Skins No Problem

We saw one large (size 2) avalanche that looked very recent on a north facing slope above tree line. It looked to be about 35-45cm deep. Sorry the photo is so poor the light was very flat when it was taken, the purple line outlines the crown and the debris field. We dug a quick pit and found a very reactive weak layer of decomposing fragments down 35cm that failed twice while cutting for a compression test. This layer shouldn't take more than a few days to bond and stabilize. We gave the alpine a miss today due to both the avalanche hazard and the fact that the skiing was better, less wind affected down in the trees. One of us forgot her skins for the day and discovered you can do just fine with some ski straps and pine twigs ?.