Avalanche: Dutch Draw

We skied the NE facing Easter Bowl above Dutch Draw today. I performed 2 slope cuts with no results but felt thick/dense snow, probably from SW winds that blew overnight. Snow felt wind loaded in that particular zone with the recent 4-6" of new snow that fell since yesterday. We were a bit suspicious and proceeded carefully.

First and second skiers skied down with no issues. 3rd skier triggered a small wind slab pocket that propagated about 50' wide and ran about 100' long. Slow moving snow allowed skier to get out to safety easily (great reflex, he traversed and hid behind a tree). The small debris pile was not deep enough to burry a person but could have knocked you down easily.

We also skied West and East facing slopes through the day and did not encounter any other similar wind slabs. Just light fluffy dry powder everywhere else.

This was a small isolated pocket but I wonder how widespread the SW wind loading is out there.

If this had been loaded with more snow and had ran on a bigger slope it could have been a more serious slide.

I will treat NE wind loaded slopes and gullies as suspect, especially with the new storm snow forecasted in the next 2 days that will cover them and make them harder to detect...