Hale is obviously your elder in the group. Watching the video it is clear he is well respected. From an outside perspective he is the rookie when it comes to modern backcountry safety. The ways of the 80s/90s is gone. A lot of us survived those days without realizing the punk rock snowboard mentality was heavy on style and had almost zero risk assessment. Hale clearly still thinks this way and attributes survival to luck, some training, and thinking your time comes at some point. Most people grew out of that when they had kids. Not all of us did I get it.
The justification for riding with no gear is weak. Our crew, and just about all the crews we know (pro or not) ride with gear. Sometimes light but never without the essentials and some first aid.
Hearing Hale talk about days past in Alaska is a sure fire sign of an expert halo. E
Gman was a foot away from dying from a tree strike let alone the burial. That is luck but it also came from your whole crew being on that slope at same time. Thank goodness you did have someone watching. That is a behavior for a completely stable day which you obviously did not have. You cover the warning signs in the video but I may have skimmed over the justification of 3 riders on a slope like that. It was likely from terrain familiarity. T
The Avy 1 course has changed significantly in recent years. It really gets into the human factors now. Your crew may want to consider all going together to take it again. It is not a certification like stated multiple times in the video. Over confidence from elder riders has killed many people here in Colorado this year. Get to know what FACETS means so you don't fall into heuristic traps. You had E and T happen from what I can tell.
You don't have to change your risk tolerance but your video is going to be used, in at least my educational group, of an example of how human factors can catch even a solid group off guard. We are always learning.
Really really appreciate you sharing. The production is great and a debrief is essential to learning.