Probably not quite as tender or reactive as yesterday, both old and new wind drifts are today's most obvious avalanche hazard. Found mostly on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges, I wouldn't be too shocked to stumble across a drift or two cross-loaded around a sub-ridge, gully wall, or chute. Today, you'll want to look for and avoid any recent deposit of wind drifted snow, especially if it's fat and rounded or sounds hollow like a drum. Once triggered, today's drifts may quicly get out of hand, especially if they break into weak layers now buried deeper in our snowpack.

In the early stages of the storm we were dealing with shallow drifts like the one pictured above. Today's slabs are the bigger brother version... breaking deeper and wider than you might expect.

Yesterday was the tipping point and we finally added enough weight for avalanches to begin breaking into weak layers of snow buried in our midpack. While I didn't receive reports of a widespread natural avalanche cycle, I bet many steep slopes are in the balance today, just waiting for a trigger like us to roll up and knock the legs out from underneath it. Making the current setup even more tricky is the continued possibility of triggering a slide from low on the slope, from a distance, or even from an adjacent slope.

All of this doesn't mean you can't ride. It does mean you need to stay off of and out from under steep, wind drifted slopes. By now you know the usual suspects to avoid... steep, upper elevation, shady slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass.