I think most of our wind slab issues have settled out, but the Uinta's are a big place and if you were hunting for a shallow, fresh drift you could find it. Mostly prominent on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges, there might be a cross-loaded pocket around a terrain feature like a chute or gully wall. In any case, today you'll want to look for and avoid fat, rounded pieces of snow, especially if they sound and feel hollow like a drum. Once triggered, today's wind slabs have the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect.

Deep slabs... they're tricky, they're dangerous, they're unpredictable, and now this notoriously deceptive avalanche dragon has come alive on the eastern front.

Here's what I know about this type of avalanche problem-

Our usual observations regarding snow stability often give us false stability or green light feedback. That means tracks on the slope, cornice drops, or slope cuts are unreliable methods of testing the slope. In fact, this strong, cohesive slab often allows us to get well out onto the slope before it fails and now the snow is breaking to the ground taking out the entire seasons snowpack. These avalanches are killers and as we've seen in the past few days, recently triggered slides are stacking up huge piles of body breaking debris.

So how do you manage an unmanageable avalanche problem? Well... we simply avoid it. Steep, mid and upper elevation terrain facing the north half of the compass are prime suspects as are slopes that already avalanched this season. So here's the exit strategy... if you're looking for soft snow and safe riding, simply tone down your slope angles and avoid terrain with steep slopes hanging above you.

The natural slide in the images above is similar to what Dave and Jason triggered Friday morning. This extremely connected piece of snow broke to the dirt early Friday morning and stacked up a huge piles of body snapping debris... unsurviveable if you were on the receiving end.