Christmas couloir & Niccy’s

Cold morning in Balu but the inversion quickly provided comfortable temps above 2000m (~-3•C). A size 1 loose dry pulled out of the ramp below Christmas couloir in the last 24hrs. While ascending the couloir we noticed no signs of instability or settling of any kind. Definitely not a lot of coverage in the upper choke which made for a spicy bootpack (crampons would have been nice). We closed out the day with a classic down niccy’s knotch. The combination of near surface facets and fresh snow skied very well, and Seems to be bonding quite well bellow the loose. All in all an uneventful day for our group. HOWEVER, a group triggered a size 2.5 on Ursus minor south (lookers left most line, see photo of crown line) that ran off the cliff into Hospital bowl. It was the fourth set of tracks that pulled out the slab (on the PWL at base). 1 skiier caught in the slide but they managed to fight their way out of it before being taken off the cliff. He lost 1 ski and 1 pole off the Cliff. We spoke with them on the ski out, everyone was okay just a little shook.