I'm covering two hazards under this banner this morning.

1. The first wind slab is the obvious one. This is the soft slab on the snow surface that went through a natural cycle early yesterday morning and was then very sensitive to human poking & prodding in the afternoon. These windslabs should be settling out rapidly. For the most part, this is a manageable hazard that can be found at & above treeline on slopes 35° & steeper today.

2. As Craig Gordon says, “We're got to be aware not only of the snow were riding in, but also the snow were riding on.” Yesterday Craig & I were looking to see what kind of damage the recent big winds had done. The answer can be found by digging down into the snow that feels so solid under our machines & skis. What we found was a hard slab, about 16" in depth that fails in a sickeningly planer fashion, meaning it's got a lot of stored energy in it. Check out this great example in this video. These kinds of conditions catch riders off guard because this hard snow feels strong. But, we can’t mistake strength for stability. It's a hard slab, so it's made of some very strong snow, but it is not stable, in fact it's reactive to a light/medium trigger. This slightly deeper hard slab has the potential to cause some destruction. You're most likely to get into a tangle with this thing in steep terrain above treeline on slopes facing E, NE, N & NW. It is easily avoidable however, by sticking to lower angle slopes at and below treeline, where the riding will be better too.

We’re still in a scary grey area of forecasting- the classic low probability, high consequence scenario that keeps forecasters up at night. While the chances of triggering an avalanche failing in the surface hoar are isolated, if you do, it will likely be a large, destructive, and potentially un-survivable event.

So how do you ride safely with odds like that? When the stability is in question, the answer can always be found in terrain. Sticking to lower angle, more wind protected mid elevation slopes, will minimize your exposure to the danger and you’ll still be able to rip it up all day. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Cornices are truly massive at the moment, and these beasts can be particularly unforgiving. Being the curious creatures that we are, we're always wondering, "What’s on the other side?" In this case the other side of the cornice is the void. Do your best to avoid being on top of or underneath these things, you don't want to be around it when it drops. This afternoon's warm temps and direct sun may be enough to peel one or two of these naturally off the ridgelines. When they hit the slope below, it's a hard trigger, and it does have the potential to trigger a failure in one of our deeper layers. Show these monsters some respect and give them a wide berth.