Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

At 3:35pm a single skier and their dog were descending the lower west/northwest aspect of Microdot when they triggered a soft slab avalanche. The skier was 2/3 of the way down the slope when the avalanche broke above them and sympathetically released two other adjacent pockets of snow. The skier was not caught nor carried and managed to ski in front of the advancing debris away from the runout of the slide. They noticed the avalanche was coming at them 3/4 of the way down as they turned to look for their dog. The skiers dog came down after the avalanches had stopped and was uninvolved. The skier said as they increased slope angle upon descent the avalanche began to initially slide on or just below an old slick bed-surface. The skier was on their third lap of the day with two successful runs down the backside of Microdot from the upper saddle. Ear-buds prevented them from hearing the sudden collapse or whumphing sounds.
Moments earlier I dug a snowpit on a similar aspect and elevation and assessed the persistent weak snow grains below this older crust layer and found them to be dry unconsolidated facets. The breakable slick crust was decomposing but still pencil hard with small irregular facets beneath. Around 33 inches of recent snow since 3/31 was sitting atop this melt-freeze crust adding 2.8 inches of snow-water equivalent. This mass of snow and its weight, coupled with poor snowpack structure, a little sun, and a human trigger were the right recipe for avalanches in this location.