We bailed out from our main objectives due to a number of red flags. We experienced a few significant whumfs while traveling on the ridges in the alpine, mainly on flat terrain, but enough to make us vigilant for terrain choice. We performed a hand shear about a 1/4 up Superbowl, stepping out of our uphill route to assess actual snow and aspect of what we considered as our ski route down. We could easily pulled out the 30cm upper snowpack on the faceted jan melt-freeze crust. While performing the hand shear test, we experienced a wide propagating shooting crack beside us. The lightly convex feature was supported by a small bench below, and the slab did not slide. We turned around from there knowing there were a lot more of features like that one to cross above. We found really good skiing on two excellent alpine East faces on our way back.
The day was beautiful, sunny and calm, except on ridge tops with strong wind gusts throughout the day.