Another Big Natural Near Shames

Skied a quick lap in the Shames backcountry today. At 1200m, there is a 3cm thick somewhat breakable melt freeze crust under about 10cms of new low density snow on all aspects. The crust becomes firmer the lower you go; skiing above 1400m or so is probably pretty good -- but good luck getting a viz window with this unsettled weather

Observed a number of notable avalanches from the last 1-2 days including another very large (size 3) avalanche from upper Monkey Bowl all the way over the lower roll into the valley. We couldn't see the crown but it appeared as though it ran from the upper reaches of the drainage in ENE terrain. There was also evidence of a significant slide below the treed ridge coming down from the Monkey/Zola ridge; it wasn't clear whether that started on the NE subridge or up in the alpine (N). There were also a number of size 1 and one size 2 wet loose avalanches above the Hourglass and in Geronimo.