The snowpack is settling and gaining strength and that's good news! Fact is, travel is becoming easier and the snow will feel strong and solid under our skis, board, or sled. But, therein lays the problem, because this strong cohesive slab rests on fragile, old October snow... or what we call a persistent weak layer (PWL). So we've got a deceptively tricky snowpack setup right now and we've gotta think not only about the snow we're riding in, but also the snow we're riding on. Yep... this is the classic "strong snow on weak snow" setup and that's always a dangerous combination in our mountains. This combo makes us feel safe and often allows us to get well out onto the slope before the weak layer fails (often around a bush or rock we can't see under the snow), the avalanche breaks above us, and now the entire seasons snowpack crashes down on top of us.

Now here's where it gets tricky... there's a fresh blanket of snow coating our mountains and everything's gonna look white. In fact, it'll be more difficult to determine what slopes held early season snow. But remember... terrain that faces the south half of the compass and lower elevation slopes were bare prior to last weeks big storm. And while there's plenty of gear wrecking rocks and stumps to slam into, there's no old snow and avalanche issues are more predictable and straight-forward.

Winds ramped up overnight and whipped up yet another round of fresh wind drifts and those now cover over all the drifts created early in the week... yes, it's getting complicated! So, a good rule of thumb when the avalanche equation gets tricky is to simply keep things simple... observer of the obvious, right? Yeah, simply avoid any steep slope facing the north half of the compass, especially if it appears fat and rounded or sounds hollow like a drum. And remember- any avalanche that initiates in the new snow may break deeper and wider as it crashes down on the slope below, creating a larger slide than you might expect.