Whumpfs Near a Recent Avalanche

We went to check out the snowboarder-triggered avalanche that occurred on Mt. Tallac yesterday (photos here, video here). One thing that struck us at the start of our tour was how many bushes were protruding from the snowpack below 7000 ft. As we gained elevation coverage quickly improved. While skinning up we searched for signs of buried surface hoar but did not find evidence of this on the more E facing slopes that we skinned up. We did find a layer of graupel at the base of the most recent storm snow sitting on top of a thin melt-freeze crust. 

When we got to the ridge we traversed over to the site of the avalanche and approached it from low angle slopes on the ridgeline above. We triggered a large whumpf while skinning in this area. We found a low angle spot above the crown to dig a pit and discovered a layer of surface hoar buried about 18 inches below the surface. This area did have some minor wind-loading as well. Tests targeting this layer showed that it remained weak. We skinned out the ridge a bit farther to see if other similar slopes had avalanches and triggered another whumpf. We stuck to lower angle slopes for our descent and found great snow on the lower angle N facing slopes. 

Once we got below 7200 ft. we moved to an E aspect and encountered sun affected snow with the beginnings of a breakable sun crust.