These are the kind of conditions that kill riders so there's no reason to second guess, try to outsmart, or thread the needle on this one. Avalanches are breaking to the dirt. Slopes facing the north half of the compass are bullseye terrain.

The good news is... the coverage is absolutely remarkable and there's miles and miles of terrain to ride without even having to put ourselves at risk. Avoidance is key right now and all the avy-savvy folks I know are simply avoiding terrain where the problem exists and still get in a great day of riding. Done and done!

Yesterday's winds began nuking earlier than expected, changing the landscape, and forming drifts in unusual locations... and that was even before it began snowing! Now with storm snow available to work with, drifts are widespread and found tip to tail and cross-loaded in chutes and gullies and lower downslope than you might expect. Ya gotta be on your game today and avoid any fat looking rounded pillow of snow, because once initiated, it'll break deep and wide.

Generally, new snow instabilities are pretty straight-forward and begin stabilizing rather quickly. The curve ball here is that there is a ton of new snow even at lower elevations like around our cabins and foothills. So... we need to avoid travel under steep slopes even if we're taking the dog out for a walk, trail running, or snowshoeing.