The snowpack is in its teenage years and testosterone is running rampantly. Where the pack is deep and comfortable in its own skin its pretty predictable, mostly well behaved, and avalanches are generally manageable, breaking about a foot deep.
But that same teenage snowpack needs to be carefully evaluated so you know which personality your dealing with. In steep, wind drifted terrain facing the north half of the compass, the snowpack can easily come unglued and often with hardly any provoking. At a moments notice you can collapse the slope and now you're staring down an umanageable slide that's breaking several feet deep. The most likely terrain to encounter our unruly problem child are slopes that avalanched to ground during the Solstice Storm.
Big differance is snowpack depth, strength, and stability.
Where the snowpack is deep, shears breaking to weak snow near the ground are getting ragged and lack energy, suggesting a turn towards stronger snow. JG's pit from Wednesday clearly illustrates our current setup. More on his travels found here.
Where the snowpack broke to the ground earlier this season it's a differant story. This is an example of good route finding and an intimate relationship with slope and snowpack history. This slide triggered yesterday on a steep, wind drifted, north facing slope is a repeater. It avalanched early in January, breaking to the ground, leaving behind a weak, shallow snowpack. We were able to safely navigate our way down the slope by reducing our slope angle and decending terrain where we know the snowpack is deep. If you don't have a good history of the snowpack or the terrain your riding in... you're rolling the dice.