As the snowpack grows deep and more homogeneous, the odds of triggering a dangerous avalanche that breaks to weak snow near the ground diminish. But there's a disclaimer in small print, because we don't trigger scary, dangerous avalanches from deep portions of snow, rather it's from shallow, thin pieces of snow like around rocks or bushes, barely hidden under the snow surface. Whether it's from multiple avalanches or wind scouring, bulls-eye terrain is steep, rocky slopes facing the north half of the compass, especially in the wind zone where the pack has remained thin this year. With so much wind blowing from the south, these slopes may easily have triple the load of storm snow stacking up on them as a result of recent wind loading.

Yesterday, in wind sheltered terrain, I found the new snow easily sluffing on sustained, steep slopes.... totally manageable by toning your slope angle down a few degrees. In addition, as the storm snow settles, it'll gain some body and transform into more cohesive snow... a soft slab. Tweaking small test slopes and road banks will give you great feedback to see how the terrain is reacting before center-punching a big, committing line.