By midday into the late afternoon, it will be possible to trigger shallow new pockets of wind drifted snow. These wind drifts will be primarily found in the upper elevations on northwest to east facing slopes and may be triggered at a distance. Shallower pockets may be found in the mid-elevations as well. Remember that cracking and collapsing are sure-fire giveaways to unstable snow.

A poor structure exists in the cold shady terrain and the last avalanche triggered on this strong over weak layering was in the SLC mountains on Nov 30th and the Provo mountains on Nov 26th. Until yesterday, that is: avalanche teams at Park City Mountain Resort triggered a 1-2 foot deep and 75 foot wide soft slab avalanche that ripped out to the ground on a steep north facing slope at 9900'. It looked to be a more wind loaded piece of terrain. The clear take home point is that avalanches are unlikely but not impossible...and demonstrates the mercurial character and spatial variability of old weak faceted snow. This structure is most prevalent on the shady slopes of the upper elevations.