It slid last week so it's good…right?

So much for the skier compaction theory ie...Hamburger Hill Chair 6 Crystal.
A few years back there was an eye opening picture of the Moguls under the Glacier chair at Blackcomb where the slope had given out to a similar type avalanche. That is an eye opener when hard pack moguls pull out like a slab avalanche!

Such slides occur on a fairly frequent basis, nothing new here...

... read up and don't assume that snow gets better through the season.

Such slides occur on a fairly frequent basis, nothing new here...

... read up and don't assume that snow gets better through the season.

I don't see it very often on packed runs maybe you can provide more reading fodder.
Frequently maybe deeper into spring but we got much rain that it accelerated that progression of saturation. Kinda the perfect set up with the crap layer. Often times DOT comes across this in late April or May on their highway opening work.

Ha found it after some searching...
Great example of skier compacted area that pulled out at Blackcomb Heavenly Valley run lookers left of Glacier Basin Chair in May 2008.
It is more dramatic with the cat track and moguls in the picture...strikes home that it can happen even in the most compacted zone.

Many years ago I had seen some spring pull outs at Chinook Pass that were natural which had 3ft crowns and it really gave me an anything can happen feeling.

Lots of miss information floating around. Recent observations for our area,east NC were that no step down had occured during last cycle. I guess the climax avy that left a pile on hwy 20, cutthoat path doesn't count? Or how about the whole wall on Pica peak that lost it's entire snow load,except the hanging cornice. That mass of snow did not step down pica bowl,however.  Watch out for generalized statements based upon generalized observations for a generalized area.

I hate to continue the thread drift but I wanted to address something said by freeskiguy.  I agree that there has been a lot of misinformation floating around but I think we probably disagree on where it is coming from.  When you quote past avalanche forecasts you should be careful to look at when the forecast was put out.  You paraphrase a forecast that stated "no step down had occured [sic] during the last cycle".  That particular forecast was put out on Thursday March 6th, which was well before the last avalanche cycle that caused all of the avalanches you refer to.  I can understand an honest mistake but with your track record I felt obligated to correct your observation.   

For those of you that are wondering what happened with the most current avalanche cycle, I have been out the last three days (Sunday - Tuesday) traveling through a lot of the terrain around Washington Pass to observe these avalanches, including a day with one of the NWAC forecasters.  There was a large natural cycle on Saturday but we observed only three avalanches that were deeper than the recent storm snow.  One large avalanche that has run down to bare glacial ice multiple times this year (north aspect 8,400').  One relatively small pocket on a steep hanging slab on an east aspect near 7,800', and the third avalanche was on a solar aspect that was difficult to assess whether or not it was more than just storm snow.  Not to downplay these large avalanches but considering the weather event that caused them I would have expected more. 

The other avalanches freeskiguy refers to did not step down to the deeper (late Jan/early Feb) layers from what we observed.  They were large but that would be expected considering the amount of storm snow, warm temperatures and the type of terrain these avalanches came out of (very steep, rocky terrain).  Personally, I think NWAC did a good job of forecasting this avalanche cycle.  If you go back and look at the forecast for last weekend it was about as accurate as you could hope considering they have such a large area to forecast for and only one forecaster a day to accomplish that huge task.  I know I'm biased because I work as an observer for NWAC but to have someone imply that professional observers and NWAC forecasters are intentionally giving the public misinformation is very offensive.   

where did i say or imply that nwac was intentionally miss informing the public? Maybe that observation exists within your own bias. Lets deal with the facts like, i did not read that nwac report you say that i paraphased. It is also a matter of public record that the FS took permit action to enforce permitted terrain boundaries for two outfitters in our area. I was a part of that action as well as other safety related conflicts resolution. I stand by my ''track record''.  

I'm sorry about making assumptions about what you were referring to. What you wrote made it sound like the "miss information" was coming from professional observations made in the Washington Pass area. What information were you referring to?

where did i say or imply that nwac was intentionally miss informing the public? Maybe that observation exists within your own bias. Lets deal with the facts like, i did not read that nwac report you say that i paraphased. It is also a matter of public record that the FS took permit action to enforce permitted terrain boundaries for two outfitters in our area. I was a part of that action as well as other safety related conflicts resolution. I stand by my ''track record''.  

It is just that your track record is so often antagonistic. I am going to agree with you that organizations have made mistakes and even possibly overstepped boundaries intententionally. Members of the public have in the past and will continue in the future to make poor decisions.

If your true goal is education you might consider that at least one person stops hearing your message when it takes the tone of zealous evangelism.