Human triggered avalanche activity near the summit of Hidden Peak

Near and above treeline (8800 ft to 9200 ft) on Hidden Peak the winds had created soft wind slabs on any exposed N-NE-E facing terrain. Shooting cracks occurred anywhere these wind slabs existed with the longest cracks extending 20-30 ft away from my skis. One of these cracks started on the summit ridgeline and fractured down onto steeper slopes and caused avalanches on those slopes 20-30 ft away (remote triggering)(photo 3, video 2). In another case a ski cut on a small test slope not only caused a small slide on that test slope, but also on a larger adjacent wind loaded slope (photo 1, video 1). All of these slides ran within the new snow and most of them only failed on a density change within the new snow. However one of them (the slide remotely triggered from the test slope) did fail down to the old crust and ran on that layer. Another one ran on a bed surface within the new snow but cracked all the way down to the old crust. I did not see any natural avalanches.

Photo 1: Small ski cut triggered slide on a NE facing, wind loaded slope. Note the second larger slide in the background that was remotely triggered when this test slope failed. See video 1.

Photo 2: Long shooting cracks near treeline on a wind loaded slope.

Photo 3. Shooting crack triggered from a ridgeline that shot down into the slope below. Then next kick caused this 35 degree, NE facing, wind loaded slope to slide with a 1-1.5 ft crown. The slide ran downslope about 200 ft and measuresed about 120 ft wide. See video 2.