You'd be hard pressed to trigger an avalanche today, though with winds on the rise and just enough old snow to blow around, a rogue pocket or two in a cross-loaded chute above treeline isn't totally out of the question. So, with generally Green Light conditions, of course we're setting our sights on tagging big terrain. However, before diving head first, pump the brakes for a second or two and evaluate each slope on an individual basis. If I'm in steep, committing terrain, I consider the consequences of triggering even a small slide which could knock me off me feet and instantly ruin my day.

Not much going on at the moment, but looking into the past and present helps us look into the future in terms of snow stability and right now we're focusing on snow surface temperatures which ricochet all over the map. Cold temperatures at night and warm temperatures during the day create very weak, faceted grains close to the snow surface and this is what we call Near Surface Facets (NSF). The NSF was capped and preserved by last Tuesday's few inches of snow. Mark found it last week around Soapstone... captured in the image above.

I found it on steep slopes in Chalk Creek Friday where both the surface snow and NSF are so weak, it simply sluffs, fanning out below you. For now, it won't be an avalanche problem until more snow stacks on top.