Avalanche: Hogum

Three of us got an early start and were headed into Hogum Fork (from White Pine) to check out the Needle. As we approached Hogum Hogback we noticed ski tracks and soft slab debris, from the day before, beneath the Obelisk. Continuing on, skinning was slippery up the NE end of the Hogback since the new storm snow hadn't bonded well. Remembering skier reports from the day before about soft slabs/sluff and seeing the soft slab debris we ruled out the Needle and decided to test the east face of the hogback. The skin track and initial turns didn't result in any movement of snow, but each skier was able to initiate separate very slow moving soft slab avalanches during each run. Slides were as wide as the tracks and ran the length of the face, but were very manageable on the open face (would not be in a chute). The skiing was top notch, so we decided a 2nd lap was in order to knock the rest of the storm snow off the face.