Witnessed Sz 2 - Saphire Col

Our group witnessed the first skier of four triggering an avalanche while descending the south side of Saphire Col. Skier was struck by debris but not buried or injured. We had been wrapping the Lilly from Loop Brook and had intended to ascend Saphire Col and descend into the Asulkan Valley. This avalanche surprised us as we had seen no slab properties in the new snow which was generally unconsolidated and bonding well with the Feb 3 MFcr. I dug a test pit in the ascent gully on the lookers left side of the slope shown in the photos. The 4cm suncrust which formed on Feb 9 had a few cm on top and failed CTE2 SC. The remainder of the snowpack below was more consolidated with no additonal failures and the Feb 3 was not as pronounced at this elevation. The avalanche however appears to have failed on a facet layer on the rocks and rock slabs out skiers left. The remainder of the party was setting up a rappel to join their comrade and to avoid the developing cluster we opted to backtrack and ski the Dome. Communication was an issue among the party during the incident, it was a good reminder to carry radios when skiing committing terrain. Apologies for the low-quality photos.

Potentially recent windloading but the failure plane appears to be on facets adjacent to the rock slabs.