The snowpack is complex, with weak, sugary faceted snow from January sitting underneath multiple feet of denser snow from the past few weeks. Strong snow over weak snow is a classic setup for avalanches. Obvious red flags like collapsing and cracking may be absent, and you may even get a few sets of tracks on the slope before finding the right trigger spot, often a shallower part of the slab near rocks or bushes. These avalanches have the potential to be large and destructive.

While not widespread, this problem is impossible to navigate. The only way to deal with a persistent weak layer is to avoid it - steep and rocky slopes with shallow snow on the north half of the compass are off limits for now.

The slide on Duchesne Ridge produced SUV-size chunks of debris, which stacked up deep in the runout and in the trees below. Getting caught in a dangerous slide like this could be game over -- Trees turn into baseball bats, and debris chunks are like boulders coming down on you.

The wind has been and will continue to be relentless - with a Wind Advisory in effect for today, expect slabs of wind-drifted snow to develop in leeward terrain and around terrain features like gullies, rock outcrops, subridges, and mid-slope rollovers. These smooth, rounded pillows will feel hollow underfoot and may let you get well out onto them before suddenly releasing. Cracking and collapsing may not be present. Remember, any avalanche triggered can step down into buried weak layers within the snowpack, triggering a larger avalanche than expected.

It's easy to avoid this problem by staying out of the wind zone and not traveling on steep slopes holding rounded, textured pillows of snow.

Red arrows indicate rolling snow that is loading leeward slopes at mid and upper elevations. The black arrows indicate a few things to look for when identifying and avoiding today's hazard.