Ward Canyon

Set out for a tour in ward canyon at 0700. On my way up, I observed what looked like a large natural wind slab or p-slab combo on the crest inside the alpine meadows boundary. It was NE facing, at least D2, wide propagation, most likely failed mid-event. Verified my thoughts to take it easy, so Im sticking with my plan to ski souths and avoid avalanche terrain. I made my way into the canyon by skiing south grouse. Amazing quality, supportable + soft + fast. After hiking back up for another run I decided to get on top of the prominent rock feature just to the east of little AK. This gave me a good vantage point of the big repeater avalanche paths back in ward canyon not visible really from anywhere in that drainage besides stanford rock. Once I had eyes on I counted at least 5 p-slab avalanches that likely occurred during the event yesterday evening. Most were mid-slope on steep (great than 35 degrees) unsupported slopes. As the curious professional I am, I wanted to give the P-slab furthest to the south of little ak a better look, so I made a plan to safely get over to the crown line using non-avalanche terrain and the slide path itself. Looking back on the choice, I did not feel the hang fire to be a risk, but certainly could have been... Funny, cause I was in avalanche terrain...which I certainly talked myself into it based on the fact the path slide full track and I was touring up on the debris. Either way, once next to the crown, it made me realize how big this thing actually was, mostly a meter deep and broke about 500 feet wide. The debris and bed surface were covered by 3 inches of snow, which led to be think it failed sometime in the evening hours. Failure layer was the Jan 2nd near crust facets. I did run a few snowpack tests right next to the crown: CTVE (failed on same jan. 2nd layer down 90cm), ECTP11 (same failure layer). Looking back on this day and the conditions, Im not sure if people would of thought that large avalanches could occur today If we removed the natural p-slab activity, there was very limited signs of instability besides some small wind slabs near exposed ridge lines and a few isolated collapses. Just another reminder, things aren't the tahoe norm. Stay frosty.