Winds are coming from an unusual Northeasterly direction and with fresh snow to work with, they're busy forming drifts on slopes facing the south half of the compass. While easily manageable to start with, once triggered it's gonna be a different story. A fresh drift can break into weak layers of snow buried deeper in the snowpack quickly creating a large and unmanageable avalanche.

In addition to direct loading on south facing slopes, today's wind will also crossload chutes and gullies on shady slopes. So there's more to today's avalanche dragon than meets the eye. Best way to avoid getting tricked is to look for and steer clear of recently wind loaded slopes, especially those that appear fat and rounded.

A perfect example of the kind of terrain that gets crossloaded by winds. One side of the chute might be stripped, while the other harbors a recent deposit of wind drifted snow.

Usually sunny slopes are very predictable and avalanches break on slick melt freeze crusts formed during the warm days/cold nights. This year however, it's an entirely different snowpack on south and west facing terrain. As a matter of fact, we're seeing very weak sugary snow in the mid portion of the snowpack. And like clockwork, each time it loads with strong northerly winds, avalanches fail on this suspect weak layer, quickly stepping down to weaker snow near the ground.

On the other half of the compass the pack remains suspect in steep, rocky terrain. In either case the best way to combat triggering a deep dangerous slide is with terrain selection. Tone it down a notch or two, match your terrain selection with the avalanche danger, and above all, think about the consequences of triggering a slide.

This slope took a big hit with a huge piece of cornice slamming down on it, triggering a slide that broke to weak January snow.

Cornices continue to grow in size and unpredictability.