With new snow this morning and S and SW winds, look for fresh slabs of wind-drifted snow. These can either be formed by wind-loading from the top of ridges OR cross loading along the edges of gullies and sub-ridges. The simplest way to deal with this problem is to look for it and then avoid it. Ski cutting may be an option but it is a high risk maneuver that often surprises professional ski patrollers who have a lot of practice doing it. There are older wind slabs covered by new snow. These have most likely stabilized but a few could remain sensitive. Places with new wind slabs are likely places with older wind slabs.

Image below of top loading.

Image below of cross loading

With snow containing up to an inch of water so far this morning, this additional weight may begin to awaken persistent weak layers of faceted snow buried about 2-4 feet deep. To be clear. when I say awaken, I mean that this layer could start producing avalanches today. With the additional weight of wind drifted snow, avalanches on this layer become even more likely.

Yesterday my partner and I skied in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We identified and avoided areas of wind drifted snow. A harder problem to avoid is a persistent weak layer of facets. There are some near the ground, but these have not produced an avalanche in a long time. Periods of dry, cold weather in mid December and early January formed a layer of sugary facets that are now buried 2-4 feet deep.

The only way we could find this avalanche problem was by putting our shovels in the snow. We dug quick snowpits and performed extended column tests (how to video). This test can help find weak layers when the colum breaks under your shovel. If it breaks across the column (propagates), that is a bad sign.