Winds have been blowing for days and there's no shortage of fresh snow available for transport. Problem is... newly formed drifts conceal older wind drifted snow that formed early in the week. So, yes... the entire deal is a bit more complicated than meets the eye. In addition, the snowpack has gained a substantial amount of buoyancy and will feel strong and solid underneath us. But remember- hard, dense snow can give us a false sense of snow stability, allowing us to get out further onto a slope before it fails and brings the entire roof down on top of us. Found mostly on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges, due to the strength and duration of winds, I'd also be on the lookout for fresh drifts around terrain features like chutes and gullies. In either case, both new and older drifts now rest on weak, faceted, older snow and that means avalanches are gonna be easy to trigger.

The good news... we're off to a great start and the Uinta are white and travel is mostly easy. The bad news is... two weeks of dry, cold weather during mid November, turbo charged the faceting process, creating a layer of weak, sugary facets on the snow surface. Prior to last Tuesdays big storm, the weakest snow was found on shady slopes, but is now camouflaged by several rounds of storm snow, making it hard to detect.