Person in Party rode up the chute and just as he peaked and was turning out the break occurred and the chute below fractured into pieces then slid. Rider was able to turn out onto adjacent slope and make it down safely without incident. Conditions were warming up, no wind and 2 day old snow along with some wind loading below the cornice. I did see sugar snow at about 2 feet below a hard surface just below the ridge. Everyone was beeping and carrying shovels....need to just keep them from making bad decisions. We were lucky on this one.