West and southwest winds are busy at work this morning gusting into the 40's and 50's. With plenty of fresh snow to work with, they're whipping up a fresh batch of stiff wind slabs. While found mostly along the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges, I wouldn't be too surprised to find sensitive drifts cross-loaded around terrain features like chutes and gully walls. Common theme is... slabs are most prevelent on slopes facing the north half of the compass. Today you'll want to look for and avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. Remember- clues to unstable snow include shooting cracks and whoomphing sounds or collapses of the snowpack. The snowpack is still relatively thin and the bummer with low tide conditions is, triggering even a small slide greatly increases your chances of slamming into a season ending rock or stump.

Michael J was near the Duke Bowl yesterday and he too experienced widespread collapsing and whoomphing of the snowpack.

Here's where it gets tricky. We've got a complex snowpack with a myriad of crusts and weak, sugary snow sandwiched in between. Yes, we've got a deceptively tricky snowpack. As a matter of fact, this layering is the kind of combination when I see the vast majority of close calls and near misses in the western Uinta's.

Before the Christmas Eve storm, we got nickled, dimed, and teased with bits and pieces of little storms and there wasn't enough weight to activate any of the buried weak layers. However, with the recent round of snow and wind I think we've hit a critical crossroads and our complex snowpack is teetering on the edge. As a matter of fact, I bet It won't take much to kick the legs out from under the slab and I think you can initiate a slide from a distance or low on the slope. Once triggered, an avalanche could quickly get of hand as it breaks to weaker snow near the ground.

The best strategy is easy... it's avoidance. Simply avoid being on or underneath steep, wind drifted slopes facing the north half fo the compass. Remember- there are plenty of south facing slopes you can ride throughout the range where you don't even have to deal with this issue.

Click here for a short viddy describing the setup.

Here's your exit strategy for today. South facing terrain that had little or no old weak snow prior to the Christmas Eve storm.