Yesterday's moderate to occasionally strong west/northwest winds had plenty of 6% density snow to work with, creating fresh drifts at the mid and upper elevations. Although these drifts will be less sensitive today, steep wind-loaded slopes should be avoided. Increasing winds out of the southwest today will create a new batch of fresh drifts, especially along upper elevation ridges. Although you are most likely to find these drifts on leeward aspects facing north through east, cross-loading onto any aspect is possible.

Three storms this past week added about 1.5" of water weight to our snowpack, with a couple of wind events adding additional stress. Our season-long persistent slab weaknesses have been dormant the past two weeks, however the added loads this past week may be enough for them to become reactive once again. Although some zones such as the upper Cottonwoods have stronger and deeper snowpacks, there are also plenty of areas where the snowpack is thinner and weaker (what we term "spatial variability") such as along the Park City ridgeline and in Millcreek Canyon.

Although triggering one of these deeper slides is probably unikely, any avalanche failing on weak sugary snow down near the ground would be quite large - up to 2-4' deep and breaking out very widely. In other words, unsurvivable.

Yesterday, my longtime touring companion Bob Frey and I were looking at the snowpack, focusing on this increasingly-deeper persistent weakness. See the discussion from our field work in this video below:

The good news is that Thursday's storm created stellar riding conditions, providing plenty of safe options outside of the terrain harboring the weakest snow.

Loose, dry sluffing in the new snow remains possible today on steeper aspects. Ski cuts at the top of steep rollovers are very effective at identifying and managing this hazard. Although cool temperatures and winds should keep the snow surface cool, direct sunshine may also create wet loose activity on steeper southerly aspects.