Have you been hearing how cell phones and such can interfere with your avalanche beacon? The "20/50 Rule" is that you want your beacon 20cm (8") away from other electronics while transmitting and 50cm (20") away from electronics while searching. Get the full scoop here.

In my travels to the Abajos on Friday, I found the full gamut of wind affected surfaces from crusted, to hard wind board, textured sastrugi, and finally, hard slabs of wind drifted snow. It's getting harder to find areas with soft snow. Hard slabs formed on Wednesday are now mostly stuck in place but you may still be able to trigger one somewhere in wind affected terrain. Isolated, or "pockety" in nature, hard slabs of wind drifted snow are most easily detected by their hollow sound or feel. Mostly shallow, they won't likely bury you but they could sweep you off your feet or carry you over a cliff. South facing slopes are either firm or breakable crust. They'll get soft and slushy as the day progresses. In shallow snowpack areas it is still possible to trigger a deeper avalanche failing on the November persistent weak layer. You are most likely to find this problem on northerly facing slopes in areas of very steep, more radical terrain.