I find that slabs of wind drifted snow are hard to judge and assess. You can jump on many small drifts on small test slopes, or you may even ride over recent ones and none will produce an avalanche....until another one does. How quickly they bond to underlying snow is difficult to know. If for any reason there are facets underneath, then they will remain unstable for some time. If not, they may stabilize in 24-48 hours. While they are growing and winds are transporting snow, there is no reason to trust them.

We went to look at the east ridge of the Pfeifferhorn where 4 people were caught in an avalanche yesterday.

Today, I think many of these wind slabs have begun bonding. Probably ones on E, S, & W aspects where they received direct sunshine and more warmth have bonded. The ones I would be less likely to trust would be ones on northerly facing slopes. Tomorrow, they will have likely bonded even more.

We did a few snowpack tests (ECT's) on slopes with wind drifted snow. We did not get any of these slabs to fracture in our tests but that doesn't mean much to me. The main strategy is to wait a number of days after winds have been transporting snow and forming these wind slabs. Wait even longer if you plan on going to slopes where the consequences of a small slide are severe.