Wednesday nights wind formed stiff, connected drifts along the leeward side of upper elevation ridges and around terrain features like chutes and gullies. Sounds pretty straight-forward and it feels like that's the kinda terrain I wanna avoid. But here's the deal... the range is white, the snow is deep, the riding epic, but adding a curve ball to the equation is that once yesterday's storm arrived and it started snowing, winds backed off and snow fell straight out of the sky, camouflaging recent drifts. But that doesn't mean the problem magically disappears. As a matter of fact, it makes avalanche conditions a bit tricky because it's not like you're gonna see widespread avalanche activity everywhere, so we might get a false sense of "green light" avy danger. However, steep, wind drifted slopes will still react to our additional weight again today.

The good news is... there's no reason to hide under the beds today and miss out on a great day or riding. But the key to riding safely today is... look for and avoid fat, rounded slopes, especially if they feel or sound hollow like a drum. In addition, be flexible with your travels plans and adjust objectives if you're starting to see or feel obvious clues to unstable snow like shooting cracks, sudden collapses, or the biggest clue to avalanches and of course, that's avalanches!