Observation: Girdwood

we toured up to the Powder Hut and perhaps 1/4 mile beyond at most. snow
conditions were similar to what turnagain advisory said: below the treeline
there was not a cohesive slab and we were able to get small amounts of loose
snow to slide on steeper terrain ~45+ degrees while jumping on it. However,
once we went above the treeline we noticed obvious whoomping on several
occasions. We watched one member of our party as it happened and he dropped a
few inches in place. Also, there was a noticable cohesive slab on top that
sheared quite clean and easy at 2 depths. The shallower layer was about 8-
10inches down and the other deeper slabs we noticed were closer to 20-24inches.
When cutting above a skin track it was easy to trigger these small slab
releases on terrain angles around 25 degrees. we skied several small rollovers
and were unable to get any reactions.