A few wind drifts, sensitive to the weight of a rider will be found today on steep, upper elevation, wind drifted slopes. While mostly manageable in size and depth, there may be a rogue slab or two large enough to knock you off your skis, board, or sled, especially in steep, complex, committing terrain. Rather than blindly center punching a big bowl or technical chute, gather information as you travel throughout the day. Tweak small test slopes and road cuts and find out a little bit more about the characteristics of the avalanche dragon you're dealing with, giving you the kind of baseline info you need to help make solid terrain choices today.

Persistent slabs... we've been talking about this problem child since the turn of the New Year. We might have forgotten about this layer, but the snowpack has an amazing memory. The problem with a persistent weak layer buried in the snowpack, is that it comes back to life each time it goes through a rapid change whether it's reloaded with snow, strong winds, or rapidly warming temperatures. Bottom line- persistent slabs are tricky, dangerous, and can't be trusted. All we need to do is find a weakness in the snowpack, collapse it, and we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous slide. While not widespread, there are areas where strong feeling snow overlies weak, sugary snow. Best way to combat a situation like this is with terrain choice and by considering the consequences of triggering a slide.

Ted's pit profile from Boundary Creek reveals it takes some force to initiate a slide, but the quality of shear suggests the slab is like a tightly wound rubber band is waiting to snap when we find a weak spot in the structure.

Cornices continue to grow in size and unpredictability.