Most of our terrain got kissed by the sun and is shrink-wrapped this morning. But ya know it's spring and the sun is high in the sky. If you find yourself feeling like an ant under a magnifying glass, so is the snow. It doesn't mean you need to blow off a good spring powder day, but it does mean that if you find the snow getting damp, you should switch to a cooler aspect. And remember, while slow moving, wet avalanches stack up huge piles of tree snapping debris, so you'll want to avoid terrain traps like gullies and road cuts.

The snowpack is getting comfortable in its own skin and that's good news in terrain where the snowpack is deep. However, snow is a curious medium and all we need to do is find one inconsistency or a shallow zone, maybe around a rock or bush, collapse the pack, and now we've got a bigger slide than we might've bargained for. So my safe travel strategy is to think about suspect terrain I want to continue avoiding and that includes steep, rocky terrain and slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier in the season. And here's something to consider... we've got a "go anywhere" base, so if you're getting into steep, technical terrain, remember that even a small slide can knock you off your ride, slam you into a tree, and throw a curve ball at your day.