Moonlight

We skied up Skyline road to the radio tower - on the way up we experimented with breaking off small avalanches on the switchbacks - snow was sliding on the crusty bed surface 7 inches down if it was unsupported (sliding into the skin track below). Also observed some shooting cracks on small steep convexities. Skied down NE aspects <35 degrees with no instability - toured up to Moonlight to ski the E aspects - ski cut a short ~35 degree slope at 5300ft on an E aspect and triggered a ~50ft wide D1 avalanche with approximately 7 inch crown depth. My partner also ski cut and triggered a smaller D1 avalanche at a similar aspect, elevation, and slope angle, both with a low consequence low angle runout. Snow was unstable and small pockets broke off steeper convexities down to the PCT at 3900 - all on the crusty bed surface approximately 6 to 8 inches deep. The instability as well as shallow buried crust led us to choose low angle terrain for the rest of the day.

Quick report