We observed many slopes W-N-E near treeline and above that were heavily loaded by recent winds. These drifts will be slightly more stubborn to trigger tomorrow. On our way up to Pre-Laurel Peak we probed drifts up to 2 feet deep in the Upper Horse Creek Chutes. Drifted snow will remain a major concern for Thursday.

The first two photos are pockets of wind drifted snow that ran in Talking Mountain Cirque

The photos below show slopes with recent drifting, notice the fat and pillowy appearance of these slopes.

The recent load of snow (1.2" SWE) wasn't quite enough to push the PWL past it's breaking point. We observed no recent avalanche activity on the PWL, and we experienced no collapsing in our travels today. We covered a lot of ground and traveled on untouched snow for most of the day. Poor snowpack structure remains. The pack is slowly moving in the right direction, but it is going to take more time before I feel comfortable on steep slopes with poor structure. Today's pit on a N aspect at 10,400' was some of the stronger snow that I have looked at in a while, but it was in a deep snowpack area (200cm) where the weak layer was hard to trigger. Many slopes are not this deep, and skiers and riders can still trigger avalanches on these buried weak layers.