The weekend weather system is going to generate a good shot of snow, a fair amount of wind, and a lot of stoke. It's also going to change the benign avalanche conditions we've been enjoying the past few weeks. As the storm develops the avalanche danger will be on the rise and it's not gonna be entirely straightforward. As a matter of fact, we'll be dealing with two distinctly different avalanche dragons... one manageable, one not so manageable.

Let's start with the manageable- wind slabs will become sensitive to the additional weight of a rider, especially as the storm unfolds. But wind slabs are manageable because they break at or below our skis, board, or sled and we can avoid them by steering clear of fat, round pillows of snow.

Not so manageable are slides that break to old snow near the ground. Remember- the early season snowpack is shallow... and a shallow snowpack is a weak snowpack. The weakest snow we've found is on mid and upper elevation, north facing terrain, especially steep, rocky slopes and this is the type of terrain we need to avoid as the snow starts stacking up and the winds blow. Once triggered, avalanches will have the possibility of breaking deeper and wider than you might expect, easily producing a season ending injury or possibly worse.

In either case, look for natures red flags like shooting cracks, whoomphing sounds, and recent avalanches.

Wanna avoid avalanche danger altogether? The ticket this weekend is to head to terrain facing the south half of the compass or to slopes that were bare prior to the winter storm forecast to hit the Skyline this weekend.