February 17, 2019, Hurricane Ridge

Semi-epic road access yesterday; the gate did not open until 10, and the rangers required all cars to put on chains. First time we had encountered that.
Once up the road, we chose Maggie's Run with its plowed parking right before the standard skin track. Lots of people skinning, and more tracks off Sunrise Ridge by the ski area than we had ever seen. Pent-up demand after the drought, Trump shutdown, and huge snowfall! Dense fog and flurries down low in the AM gave way to clearing in the afternoon. There were fantastic views of the interior, Strait, and the Cascades with great cloud formations.
And we skied! Much much deep snow. We had untracked every run. There was a crust about a foot down and we were riding on that and not sinking deeper. The open bowl/face of Maggie's was superior. We were wary of loaded slopes but the S faces we skied seemed well bonded.  We did not go anywhere near N-facing or lee slopes that looked really loaded.
However, on the drive down, the open face of the Switchback Trail had an avalanche crown estimated at 2' that was at least a couple hundred yards wide, about 600' above the trailhead. Looked as if a point-release from the warmth set off one slab, then that triggered the second part to the east. We could not tell from the car the exact size of the crown or how far down the sliding layer was. Runcle had never seen a similar slide on that slope. He hoped to go up today to inspect the crown.