Avalanche on Gold Peak

We toured up Silver Peak today from the Poulsen ridgeline. On the way up we observed signs of wind transport. We intentionally dislodged a portion of a cornice that was forming, moving blocks slightly larger than a human onto a windloading ~30° E facing slope.  No snow was entrained. Sometime after 10:15am and before 10:35am a natural windslab avalanche occurred on the East facing side of the southeast ridge off of Gold Peak. From our vantage point it appeared to break about 6-to 12-inches deep and about 50 feet wide, running about 200 feet down a well defined avalanche path. 

We dug a hasty pit on a similar aspect and elevation. 

Snow conditions varied widly on our decent down the N face of Silver. We encouted soft surface hoar, refrozen tree bomb ice, old powder, hot powder, wind buff, and wind effected snow.