Small pocket pulled out on North side of north maggies

Location Name: 
North chute off of North maggies peaklet
Region: 
Desolation Wilderness Area (including Emerald Bay)
Date and time of avalanche (best estimate if unknown): 
Sun, 02/21/2010 - 14:35
Location Map: 
United States
38° 56' 30.3144" N, 120° 6' 50.0364" W
US


Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path

Observation made by: Public
Avalanche Observations
Avalanche Type: 
dry,slab,
Slope: 
38degrees
Trigger type: 
Skier
Crown Height: 
Less than 1 ft
Aspect: 
North
Weak Layer: 
Old Snow
Avalanche Width: 
15ft.
Terrain: 
Below Treeline
Elevation: 
8 350ft.
Bed Surface: 
Old Snow
Avalanche Length: 
200ft.
More detailed information about the avalanche: 

I was skiing Maggies Hansolo, and hadn't seen anyone else all day.  I tried stomping around on some obvious wind loaded area near the ridge, but was getting no results.  My first run was off the south peaklet north aspect.  No sloughing, and pretty decent skiing.  On my second run I went for the North facing "chute" off of the north peaklet.  At the top I skied in carefully and after a few turns cut skiers right to see if anything was moving around, but no results.  At the "choke" I stayed skiers right and made 2 more turns, after the second turn it released about 5 feet above me.  I was able to ski skiers left out of the pocket into a relatively safe zone.  The pocket that ripped out hadn't really suprised me, but did release farther above than what I was expecting.  I didn't get caught, or lose anything etc...  The crown (sorry it is a bad photo) was 6-12 inches deep and was the new snow releasing on the old snow surface.  It really was only the pocket that released, and below the choke in the apron had not released.  It ran 200+/- feet.  Nothing else moved for the rest of the run as I was cutting things pretty hard afterwords and skiing to safe zones.  No other signs were observed during the day.  The SE facing slope that I skinned up to reach the saddle had a tiny bit of melt/wet feeling to it from the sun baking it.  Only other thing of note, the North bowl of Tallac looked pretty wind F***ed.  Thanks for your hard work.

Avalanche Photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Precipitation: 
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
West
Accumulation rate: 
More detailed information about the weather: