The new storm snow is settling rapidly, though there might be a wind drift or two sensitive to our additional weight. However, don't get lulled into thinking that's the only avalanche problem we're dealing with. It's actually a bit complicated because we've got a myriad of weak layers, some of them are buried under Friday night's storm, some of them buried deeper in the snowpack near the ground... and that's the weak layer we're most concerned with. Here's the deal- we've added over an inch of water to our snowpack and it'll take a little bit of time to adjust. Problem is, it's gonna be a bit deceiving today because the avalanche danger isn't going to be in your face. You're not going to see big, deep avalanches everywhere and think, "man it's sketchy out here". As a matter of fact, most steep terrain is just waiting for a trigger like us to come along and knock the legs out from underneath it. Here's the scary part... once triggered, today's avalanches have the potential to break deep and wide, failing on old sugary layers of snow near the ground and taking out the entire seasons snowpack. The most likely place to trigger a deep, dangerous slide is steep terrain facing the north half of the compass, particularly slopes that avalanched big during the Solstice Storm.
It doesn't mean we can't ride, actually with the amazing coverage we have this season there's lots of options. We just need to tone down our objectives and our slope angles, and simply stay off of and out from under steep, wind drifted terrain. We can have a blast carving deep trenches in wide open meadows, far away from anything steep hanging above us.
It's tricky out there and this is what we're dealing with. Two close calls this week with avalanches breaking to the ground. (Dickerson and Turner photos)