whumpfs in the bumps

Observed Feb 16, 2024, 1:00 p.m. PST · Southwest Coast

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Settlement cracks running as far as 50m from where we walked. The "Swiss cheese" structure skied amazing, faceted pow

Quick report

Comment
Good powder skiing at treeline, SE aspect, low angle non avalanche terrain. Not affected by wind/sun. Everywhere untracked we stepped we heard/saw settlements/whumpfs. Thin shooting cracks would run fast and as far as 50m off our skis while skinning, collapsing the buried 20-30mm surface hoar that we observed before the snow that came in past sat/sun. This is down 10-20cms and the hoar is still pretty preserved, standing tall in those flat areas. The area we skied did only have a very soft slab on top and also wasn't steep enough to avalanche despite the propagation. Extrapolating this reactivity to steep and more "slabby" slopes where the surface hoar is found would definitely be scary and would have had us walk away from avalanche terrain.
Weather
Sunny
Ride type
Mellow slopes, Sunny slopes
Stayed away
Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes
Riding quality
Good
Snow conditions
Powder
Avalanche conditions
Avalanche condition slab, Avalanche condition sound