Yesterday's strong west/southwest winds created drifts at the mid and upper elevations. These drifts were hard, and ranged in depth from 6" to 18" along mid and upper elevation ridgelines. Although my partner and I were finding them to be stubborn and only cracking right around our skis, one observer reported them to be more sensitive. The new snowfall will cover these drifts, making them difficult to identify. These fresh drifts will primarily be found at the mid and upper elevations on aspects facing north through southeast. However, channeling around terrain features may have created deposits on almost any aspect.
Although I think the biggest issue with these fresh wind drifts is where they have overloaded persistent weaknesses on northerly aspects, drifts may also be sensitive where they also formed on top of weaker, low-density snowfall from this past week.
Westerly winds today will have fresh snow to work with, and will create new drifts, especially at the upper elevations.