Cooke City/Ascent on south ridgeline of Scotch Bonnet

While skinning up the south shoulder of Scotch Bonnet, about half way (~10,000 ft.) shooting cracks occurred on convexities and were accompanied by whumpfing. While traversing a slope a crack shot perpendicular to the slope at a convexity about 60 ft. up and the whole slope collapsed. After this we immediately turned around taking the most conservative path. These conditions were not present lower down the slope and a snow pit showed no propagation with only a Q3 fracture on the recent layer of surface hoar. It seemed that the higher elevation and more southern aspect decreased the stability of the recent surface hoar layer. The surface hoar layer was not reactive on more westerly slopes.