Over 48 hours of steady west and northwest winds, continued whipping up a fresh batch of drifts, like the one pictured above. 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 came alive late last week on the eastern front. The good news is... the weekend cold snap welded the snowpack in place and most of these instabilities appear to be dormant for the moment. The bad news is... our usual observations regarding snow stability often give misleading, 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.

So how do you manage an unmanageable avalanche problem? Well... we simply avoid it. Steep, rock, mid and upper elevation terrain facing the north half of the compass are prime suspects as are slopes that already avalanched this season, and terrain that has remained thin all year. 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.