Today at Hebgen we were all excited obviously about the new snow. Having heard about and seen the surface hoar that formed several weeks ago, this was definitely on my mind, but figured like usual we would mitigate our risk and stay on mellower terrain to avoid causing or being caught in a slide. As we got higher and broke out into 1 of the higher meadows we got a good woomph that stopped the three of us in our tracks. We skinned a little further and then dug a pit confirming what we were already concerned about, ectp 18. We rode from the ridge and then cut back to the skintrack along the ridge (commonly where most folks skin up) and kept out of the steeper slide paths.
4 red flags I observed, not to mention the Considerable danger rating given in the morning for S. Madison. 1) the big woomph 2) poor test results 3) riding in or near terrain traps.