Recent winds blasted upper elevation slopes, creating thick, yet very stubborn wind drifts. Yesterday, I thought these would be reactive to my additional weight and was completely blown away by how quickly the snowpack got shrink-wrapped, welded in place, and seemed to heal overnight. Of course, the Uinta's are a big range and I bet there's still a wind drift or two lurking on the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges and around terrain features like chutes and gullies, that'll react to our addtional weight. Guilty until proven otherwise, I'm still avoiding fat, rounded looking pieces of snow, especially if they feel or sound hollow like a drum.

I didn't find any weak faceted snow or surface hoar in my travels yesterday, but Mark's informative viddy explaining the setup on mid elevation, sheltered terrain clearly illustrates the tricky nature of a persistent buried weak layer. Found on the north half of the compass and now buried several feet deep, I don't think we're done with this problem but with a little homework, by digging around you can easily identify slopes that have a suspect snowpack and simply avoid them.

A shallow overnight refreeze coupled with rain and continued warm temperatures today, will create damp, manky conditions at mid and lower elevations. Today, avoid any steep slope that feels unsupportable or punchy and steer clear of terrain traps like gullies and road cuts where wet, heavy, cement-like debris can stack up very deeply.