Ted and I caught this piece of snow in the far western reaches of the North Slope, most likely avalanching naturally early Thursday morning. Breaking deep and wide and failing on the January drought layer, this is exactly the type of avalanche dragon we're dealing with again today.

Nailed it! A sub-committee last night with avy-savvy, snow pro and partner in crime (though we are not criminals :) Andy Nassetta accurately stated... "We've got a dense Maritime-esque slab resting on weak, Continental facets." A different type of strong snow on top of weak snow structure and very unusual for us.

So, here's the deal... from tip to tail, polar aspects at all elevations, harbor our most recent problem child, the well preserved and aptly named January Drought Layer (JDL). This faceted snow is extremely weak, and teeters on the edge with last weeks colossal storm... 2'-3' of snow and up to 3" of SWE, and now Tuesday night's additional shot of snow, water, and wind. The rubber band is tightly stretched once again.

Bringing it full circle, when I think of bullseye terrain where I could trigger a dangerous slide today I'm thinking low on the slope where several football fields worth of snow hangs above me... all I need to do is knock the legs out from underneath. Places like Heber Mountain, Wolf Creek Bowl, Yamaha Hill, or Humpy Creek come to mind. I'm also thinking about cut-banks, gullies, and small terrain features that we usually don't consider twice about playing on, but our current set-up is deceiving and this terrain fits the mold.

Little Cottonwood Canyon snow-pro dynamic duo and absolutely lovely people, Johanna and Dave Kelly, were in the Mirror Lake environs yesterday and noted increasingly sensitive wind drifts as the day progressed.

West and northwest winds increased midday Thursday and continued in that spirit overnight. Growing in size and sensitivity this is an easy avalanche dragon to navigate around. I'm gonna avoid steep, drifted slopes and pieces of snow that are fat and rounded, or sound hollow like a drum. You've been around long enough and know, when we lose the wind... we lose the problem.