The avalanche warning might've expired, but the snowpack remains sketchy and the distinct possibility of triggering a deep, dangerous slide still exists. There's no mystery here.... as a matter of fact it's basic snow science. Now I'm no snow scientist, but what I do know is this... beginning last Thursday, the snowpack received a remarkable amount of snow, water, and wind. The bigger issue is all this added weight stacked up on a weak snowpack and it just needs a little break in the action and some time to adjust. What we need to do is practice a bit of patience and remember, in due time the pack will begin to heal and become a little less agitated. Right now however, we're at a critical juncture in the life of the snowpack where all it takes is for us to come along and collapse a slope, essentially knocking the legs out from underneath it, and now we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous avalanche.

So here's where it gets even more tricky. Many steep slopes throughout the range experienced a widespread natural avalanche cycle late last week, but recent snow and wind has filled in much of that evidence. So today it's all gonna look white and that's the challenge. You can ride some slopes without incident (perhaps they already slid) and think you're good to go, while an adjacent slope that remained intact throughout the storm, is just waiting for a trigger like us to roll up and tip the balance.

So how do we manage an unmanageable avalanche? We simply avoid it... avoid being on, underneath, or connected to steep wind drifted slopes. And here's your exit strategy... great riding conditions exist on low angle, low elevation slopes facing the south half of the compass. Done and done.

With a good thump Jason B triggered this monster Saturday on an upper elevation ENE aspect. Breaking 4'-6' deep and a couple hundred feet wide, this slide failed on weak, midpack snow and broke to the dirt in several place. Once triggered, these are the type of avalanche dragons that are coming alive in our snowpack.

JG's beautiful pit profile clearly illustrates our current snowpack structure.