The snowpack is slowly adjusting to all the recent storm snow and we haven't heard of or seen any recent avalanche activity in about 5 days... that's good news. As a matter of fact, I bet there are plenty of slopes where you could ride today and not trigger an avalanche. But remember- our snowpack is still relatively shallow, its structure sketchy, and I consider it guilty until proven otherwise. Now here's where it gets tricky, as the pack gets stronger it lures us into steep terrain, often without incident, giving us a false sense of snowpack stability. However, all we need to do is find one weakness, maybe around a bush or rock that we can't see buried underneath the snow, collapse the pack, and now we're staring down the barrel of a scary avalanche. The way I'm avoiding this scenario is by simply avoiding the terrain where this setup exists.... mid and upper elevation, north facing slopes that harbored snow prior to the big Thanksgiving storm. Lose the old snow and you lose the problem.... done and done.

In the distance, the type of terrain where you could trigger an avalanche that breaks to old, weak snow near the ground.