Kim's blog says that they heli-bombed Tuesday without anything nearly approaching the results they got on Sunday/Monday. Don't know the details of what was heli-bombed (ie, if the paths were as juicy as employee housing or the Throne), but that seems to suggest that the danger was peaking Monday night. From my limited reading, it sounds like wet slab danger can peak and (temporarily??) subside sharply, so I also can't help but wonder what would have happened if they had just closed Campbell and Forest Queen for a day and tried bombing it on Tuesday.
There was no historical record of The Throne going as big as it did on March 10. The patrol didn't think it was a possibility. So what they did makes perfect sense. They chose the peak of the wet slab danger and they pounced on it.
Having been surprised, they're not making the same assumption again. That's why they've closed Exterminator for now. They can't afford to risk bringing down something huge on the gondola or the base area.
It's true that the hazard went down after the weather cleared on March 11. But nobody knows for sure whether the hazard will or won't return.
Until March 10, betting that it was best to eliminate the danger at its peak was a good bet. Now it's more complicated. I think we can expect to see more long-term closures at Crystal if we have another year like this one.
