Skier Triggered Avalanche on Red Lake Peak

14+ inches of fresh, dry snow. Blue skies, minimal wind. "Moderate" avalanche conditions. Recent natural avalanche activity observed from the storm cycle. 

Our group of 6 started our tour from highway 89 @7:15 and climbed to Red Lake Peak.  We noticed shooting cracks in some wind loaded areas on the ridgeline we climbed, but most hand pits and observations showed a well bonded snow pack with minimal signs of instabilities. We skied the more mellow upper bowl below Red Lake Peak dropping towards Crater Lake. We skinned back up about 150 vertical feet to the line we were planning to ski down to Crater Lake. We knew this terrain was steeper and more complex with terrain traps. However, the lack of previous signs of instabilities on this angle and aspect meant we decided to ski the line. We planned to go one at a time. At 10:40am the first skier did a hard ski cut across the top of the slope and had no reaction. He did a few smaller turns that released a loose snow sluff of the top couple inches.  This did run for about 300' down the slope. At this point we discussed that this was the main hazard to watch for before skiing.  The first skier then went to ski a bit further down to get photos of the next person to ski. Almost immediately a ~60' wide slab avalanche released with the skier. The skier successfully skied out of the avalanche and to safety.  

A number of factors led to this poor decision. We had just skied a similar aspect line and we all had a great time. There was certainly an element of powder fever. We seemed to be more focused on getting to the next line and not the possible dangers we should be looking for.  

We did not analyze the avalanche crown as we wanted to exit the area as quickly as possible. That being said, our thought was that this sheltered pocket could have had some buried surface hoar that was mentioned in todays avalanche forecast. 

Had the skier been unable to ski out of the avalanche path, the consequences would have likely been high due to the gullied and treed terrain trap below.