Bear Basin

At approximately 10AM this morning, I was skinning on the ridge between Beehive and Bear Basin before looking at a few low angle meadows to ski. My friends and I settled on a short, east-facing meadow that did not descend all the way into Bear Basin since we knew we did not want to enter avalanche terrain. The end of our run was at approximately 9100 feet. After the four of us skied, transitioned, and started skinning back up, the fourth member of our party (who was the last person skinning) heard a loud "whumpf" and saw a shooting crack propagate from our skin track to the right and left of us, approximately 60-80' wide. The slope was around 25 degrees. I included a photo of the crack, since it was not the surface layer of the snow that failed (the new 4" of powder from yesterday) but the older crust underneath it.