The most in-yer-face avalanche problem is recent deposits of wind drifted snow... and they're gonna be everywhere today. West and southwest winds have raged for three days and now for the first time in nearly six weeks, there's no shortage of storm snow to work with. As wind veers to the northwest later this morning, every aspect of the compass gets invited to the party. Found on the leeward side of ridges and lower downslope than we might expect, fresh drifts will begin connecting the dots around the dial. Once triggered, today's drifts will break to weak layers of old snow, now buried several feet deep in our snowpack, producing large, dangerous avalanches.

I went for a quick rip around Wolf Creek Pass yesterday and found a very tender snow structure reactive to my additional weight and snowpack stability tests.

A persistent weak layer of near surface facets that formed over the long stretch of dry, January weather is now protected and preserved beneath our most recent storms. On mid and upper elevation polar slopes, this weak layer is buried over 2' beneath the snow surface, is reactive to our additional weight, and can be triggered remotely or from a distance.

Avoiding steep slopes is the ticket today. Bullseye terrain includes thin, rocky areas that are trigger points, where the snowpack is more susceptible to our additional weight.

In addition, we've been noticing lots of red flags, like cracking and collapsing sounds, which are huge red flags and obvious clues to unstable snow. Don't forget, there's no shortage of weak snow buried and protected beneath the surface, and now there's a strong, dense slab resting on top... it's game on!

Just the shear amount of new snow is worth honorable mention. Recent storm snow at all elevations will react to our additional weight. Sustained steep slopes even at lower elevations are now coming into play and need to be carefully evaluated.