While not particularly connected and making up a small portion of the terrain available to ride in, pockety wind drifts sensitive to our additional weight can still be found on steep, leeward slopes in the wind zone. A bit less sensitive than previous days, recent drifts could none-the-less break a little deeper and wider than you might expect. I'd continue to avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum.

A quick visual scan of the ridges and terrain features like chutes and gullies, can help you determine where the wind's been blowing and the type of terrain you wanna avoid.

Overall our snowpack looks great and most slopes across the range are comfortable in their own skin. However, we do have a few problem children and terrain where the snowpack has remained thin all season, particularly steep, rocky, upper elevation slopes facing the north half of the compass should be considered suspect. Once triggered, an avalanche in terrain with these characteristics can easily get out of hand. If you're getting into the big north facing bowls, think about the consequences of triggering an avalanche that breaks to weak layers near the ground and at the very least, have an exit strategy.

When I think of a place that harbors weak snow and the potential to trigger a deep, dangerous avalanche, Currant Creek Peak always comes to mind. We took a spin out there Tuesday and found mostly supportable snow and a solid snowpack. But with all the great riding options available, there's no reason to tease this slope and roll the dice... this is exactly the type of complex terrain I'd steer clear of.