Powderhouse Observation

I toured Powderhouse today. Winds were gusty leaving Hwy 89 and there were moments when huge amounts of snow was being blown from the trees even at lower elevations. Closer to the summit winds had decreased and were in the moderate range and blowing significant amounts of snow over the ridge. As I approached the summit ridge I noticed a large cornice had partially failed previously and that debris from that had tumbled down slope about 200 feet. It's possible there was a small wind slab triggered as part of this but too much new snow had accumulated on top of the debris to be sure. An adjacent large cornice that had also failed there were obvious flanks from a wind slab avalanche triggered by the cornice fall. I looked and didn't see any ski tracks near these cornices, so I am assuming they failed naturally and it appeared to have been in the last 12-24 hours based on how much new snow was on top of the debris.

Further up on the summit ridge, I found a small innocuous cornice and kicked it with relatively minimal propagation. Lower down on Powderhouse I didn't observe any instabilities. 

Photo 1: Some moments of blue sky during my time on Powerhouse. 

Photo 2: Settlement cones around trees.

Photo 3: Near the summit ridge a large chunk of this cornice broke and traveled down the slope. 

Photo 4: Closer but off to the side of the same large cornice missing a chunk. 

Photo 5: Different cornice break and small wind slab.

Photo 6: On a much smaller but nearby cornice I got minimal cracking and propagation in response to ski kicks.