Snowpack obs and natural avalanche on the Fireplug

Short tour on near Tamarack showed sun affected snow on the souths, and cold snow on northerlies. The strong March sun was intense whenever the clouds parted, and the southerly facing slopes showed crusts and melting. 

On the north-facing side of things, we observed a small-ish/D1.5 slab avalanche (photo 1) that probably failed last night judging by the amount of new snow on top. 30' wide, several hundred feet downhill and ~12" deep. Of note, there were many shooting cracks in the snowpack surrounding the start zone (photo 1&2). I was not able to investigate how deep these shooting cracks failed. 

No other signs of instabilities observed. This was a personal tour.