Here's what our weak snow near the ground looks like and Cody's take... "4-6 mm Depth Hoar crystals found in our deep snowpit in the Humpy Creek drainage. Hard to trust a depth hoar snowpack even when buried this deep..."

Surprisingly, winds have been unusually light and our forecast calls for more of the same today. However, don't let your guard down. Remember- the Uinta's are a big range and it never ceases to amaze me how even just a little bit of wind can find snow, channel it through terrain features, and form fresh drifts sensitive to our additional weight. While a few wind drifts may have formed along the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges, you might find a rogue drift or two around a terrain feature like a chute or gully wall. In any case, today you'll want to look for and avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. (Scroggin image)

Cornice are ginormous and may break back further than you might expect. And remember- several large, recent avalanches have been triggered with cornice fall. You definitely wanna give these large, unpredictable pieces of snow a wide berth and not ruin someones day below by inadvertently knocking a boxcar size piece of snow down on them.

A piece of cornice releasing naturally, rolled down onto the slope below sometime early last Sunday morning, triggering this large slide that broke to weak snow near the ground. Approx 8' deep, 200' wide, and running 800' vertically, this avalanche occurred on a NE aspect at 10,300' at the upper reaches of Mill Fork of Chalk Creek. (Nalli images)