Our snowpack is consolidating, strengthening, and doesn't feel like a bottomless pile of loose sugar.... and that's good news. However, it's a double edge sword because this stronger snow feels solid under our skis, board, or sled but it in many places the slab rests on a facet/crust combo about 30 cm above the ground surface. All the avalanches I've looked at the past few days reveal failure at this layer and once triggered, avalanches are breaking deep and wide. So what this means is we need to think not only about the snow we're riding in, but also the snow we're riding on. Now here's where it gets tricky... in terrain where the slab is thickest, avalanches are harder to trigger because it's more difficult to effect our suspect weak layers. However, thin spots, like around rocks or bushes, are often good trigger points and all we need to do is collapse the slope, initiate the slide, and now the entire seasons snowpack is crashing down on us.

The photo below shows weak snow near the ground, and how a snowmobile can stay on top of the snowpack. However, there are a lot of different ways for a sled or a skier to impact the weak layer. Because the snowpack is not the same depth across a slope, it's easy to hit a thin spot and trigger an avalanche. Tracks on a slope DO NOT mean it is safe or stable.

Ted was in the Millcreek zone on the east side of the range and reports a shallow snowpack with a slab on top... always a bad combo which could lead to more deceptively tricky avalanche conditions.

His great ob is found HERE.

There's no shortage of low density snow to blow around and form fresh drifts sensitive to our additional weight. However, the atypical wind direction loads terrain in unusual locations. Found mostly on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges with a westerly aspect, strong winds have deposited snow lower down-slope than we usually expect to see. In addition, fresh drifts also formed around terrain features like chutes, gullies, and sub-ridges. In any case, you'll want to look for and avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it feels hollow like a drum. And remember- wind slabs add additional stress to buried persistent weak layers keeping them on edge, ready to fracture and produce an avalanche. What this means is that once triggered, a small wind slab may break deeper and wider than you might expect.