An accumulated foot of snow and moderate to strong winds on Tuesday night formed soft slabs of drifted snow on all aspects near and above treeline. Southerly winds last night continued to blow and drift snow. The deepest, and most widespread drifts can be found on northerly aspects and this is your primary area of concern. Wind drifts are often recognizable by their smooth, rounded appearance. They may also feel dense or hollow underneath, and cracking is a sign of instability.

In my travels on Wednesday, I was able to crack out numerous drifts such as this on all aspects. Slabs of drifted snow are gaining strength and are less sensitive to weight of a skier or rider, but they may release once you are further on to a slope. Approach suspected wind drifted slopes with caution, and avoid areas with steep convexities or blind "break-overs."

Unfortunately, a layer of weak, faceted snow that formed on the old snow surface is now turning up too often to be ignored. The tricky part is that it doesn't exist everywhere, and in some cases it's lying under older wind slabs. Dave Garcia and Chris Benson have both detailed it in their most recent observations. In my travels on Wednesday, I discovered a weak layer of faceted snow on a northerly aspect around 11,000'. On a nearby NE aspect I didn't find this layer, and I didn't find it in my travels over in Dark Canyon yesterday. What this means is that for the time being, you're going to need to do a slope by slope analysis if you're thinking about into steep, northerly facing terrain.

I've highlighted the weak layer of faceted snow I found here by pressing into it with my hand. This is on a N aspect at 11,000'.

I dug this pit on a nearby NE aspect at 11,000' and didn't find the weak layer.