Avalanche at Hidden Peak

A skier in our party accidentally triggered a widely propogating avalanche on E/NE aspect below treeline on Hidden Peak. No one was caught or carried. Crown height was about 1 foot, and the crown ran ~200 feet accross the slope. The slab was very soft, ran slowly, and broke up as it ran for 50-100 feet.

We think the failure plane was within the storm snow. The bed surface was composed of soft snow and a crust was evident about 4 inches below the bed surface, which we think was either from a rain crust from earlier in this storm or a sun crust from earlier in the week. We think any surface hoar would have been closer to that crust, but have some uncertainty about classifying the avalanche due to the location also somewhat matching the forecasted surface hoar pwl and the wide propogation of the crown.