Prior to the big Solstice storm, our snowpack was a weak sugary mess. In just a couple of days we added a tremendous amount of dense, wind driven, water laden snow, ontop of a fragile, shaky foundation. You probably wouldn't build your house on a structure like this and I'm sure not gonna bet my life on it. So here's the deal... much of the range slid naturally and there's reports of avalanches everywhere and that's good news. The bad news is, many slopes still hang in the balance waiting for a trigger like us to come along and tip the scales. Now comes the tricky part. You can probably ride plenty of steep slopes and not trigger a slide and think you're good to go. However, since it's pretty much been snowing and blowing all week, it'll gonna be hard to tell what slopes are intact and which have already avalanched. Unless you've got a keen eye or you've been carefully tracking a certain zone, your safest bet is to simply avoid steep slopes altogether. Click HERE to view a viddy that pretty much sums up what we're dealing with.
Not every slope you ride is gonna avalanche and that's going to complicate the overall picture. However, if you do find the right combination of terrain that remained intact during the big midweek storm, then add the additional weight of a rider to the slope, all you need to do is collapse the slope... whoomph... and you'll be staring down the barrel of a very dangerous avalanche similar to this close call which occurred Thursday in between Tower Mountain and Currant Creek Peak. Here is a great firsthand account, along with a viddy overview after the fact.