Winds have been all over the map and team up with a couple inches of snow to form fresh, dense drifts on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges and terrain features like chutes and gullies. Easy to identify by their fat, rounded appearance, these aren't particularly rowdy pieces of snow. However, don't let your guard down, especially in the windzone above treeline, where a fresh wind slab could definitely pack a bigger punch then you might've bargained for. You know the program... lose the wind and you lose the problem. Simply steer yourself away from rounded pillows of snow, especially if they sound hollow like a drum.

Becoming more the exception than the rule, there's still an outside chance we can provoke the mostly dormant, persistent weak layers or PWL, especially in terrain that has remained thin all season like slopes that avalanched earlier this winter. Here's the deal and here's where it gets tricky... we're not going to see obvious red flags like cracking, or hear big, booming whoomphing sounds or experience heart-stopping collapses. However, if you do some detective work and trench down a bit in thin areas, you'll find weak, faceted snow buried a couple feet below the snow surface. We might forget about the layering, but the snowpack has an amazing memory.