Most of our wind drift issues seem pretty well behaved and predictable. Of course, if you're getting into steep, unforgiving, radical terrain remember- even a small slide can knock you off your feet or sled and take you for a fast, body bruising ride into trees or over a cliff band. Found on steep, leeward slopes in the wind zone, above treeline, today's shallow slabs are easy to detect by their fat, rounded appearance and easy to avoid. Simply lose a little elevation and you'll lose the problem.
In our travels on the south half of the range yesterday, we noticed a few drifts on the leeward side of upper elevation terrain.
Less predictable, is any slide that fails on weak, sugary snow near the ground, or what we call persistent slabs. Remember- persistent slabs have the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect. Steep, rocky terrain facing the north half of the compass and particularly slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier this season should be considered suspect.
Steep, rocky, thin, and weak... this is the kind of terrain where you could still trgger a slide that breaks to weak snow near the ground today. (Scroggin photo)