Mark delivers an outstanding explanation of the snowpack layering he found during his travels around Trial Lake yesterday. A summation of his travels are found HERE.

The snowpack is slowly adjusting to the big Christmas storm which stacked up a respectable amount of snow, a massive amount of water weight, and ushered in days of relentless winds. And remember... this all piled up on a shaky foundation. Yeah, the range turned white overnight and it all looks good to go, but we're at an early season, adolescent cross-roads in the life of our snowpack. Indeed, the snowpack is in its teenage years... getting more predictable and easy to have fun with, but say the wrong thing and it blows up in your face! So, let's not get fooled by how solid and straight-forward the snowpack feels under our skis, board, or sled. Instead, let's think not only about the snow we're riding in, but also the snow we're riding on and remember the basement layer is a house of cards and needs a little more time to turn the corner and get comfortable in its own skin.

Here's where it gets tricky... the avalanche danger isn't in your face obvious as many slopes that avalanched filled back in with storm snow and now conceal that huge clue. The bottom line is- slopes that haven't already avalanched naturally, just wait for a trigger like us to roll along and knock the legs out from underneath it. So, today's avalanche danger is nothing to take lightly as any avalanche triggered may have catastrophic consequences. Once triggered, slab avalanches may break on a persistent weak layer of old snow near the ground, resulting in a deep, wide, unmanageable slide.

Here's your exit strategy- there's plenty of safe, low angle terrain in the Uinta Mountains. But the key to avoiding avalanches is to avoid being on, under, or anywhere near slopes steeper than 30 degrees, especially those facing the north half of the compass.