Cornice Failure on Picnic Rock

I elected to ski the south side of picnic rock this afternoon based on its relatively shallow slope and uncomplex terrain. As I ascended, ski penetration ranged between 2 and 7 inches. Wind features existed throughout the trees. (Photo 1). I kicked at several small convexities in the trees, but could not get any of them to fail or crack. Near the summit, the south side of the ridge had been scoured down to a sun crust. I could see car sized cornices forming on the north side of the ridge. Although I gave the cornices a healthy berth as I skinned along the ridge, when I got within 20 feet I triggered a 30-foot-long crack that ran mostly parallel to the cornice edge. I moved to a spot with a smaller slope on the leeward side and kicked a couple times. With relative ease I got several refrigerator sized cornices to collapse on to the slope below. 2 more kicks in a different location yielded a cornice failure the size of a compact car. I then found a place where I could look at the slope below these cornice failures and could not see any signs of slab failure or cracking. I jumped several times on the leeward slope in an area that did not previously have cornices and saw no slope failure or cracking. 

Photo 1: Wind features in the treed south facing slope. 

Photo 2:  This crack broke as I approached the ridge and ran 30 feet parallel to the cornice edge up to 15 feet away from the edge. 

Photo 3: One of several refrigerator sized cornice failures that did not cause the slope below to fail. 

Photo 4: This one pretty much failed by looking at it.