The snowflakes, my friend, are blowin' in the wind

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Hard
• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Nuclear winds up on Cokely today! (quite easterly) With all the loading and scouring, it was a bit tough to say how much accumulated in the storm. We think somewhere in the area of 25 cm, all ending about the time we arrived, around 10 am.

We found widespread freshly wind redistributed snow and wind slabs forming at all elevations, even open areas below treeline. We noticed some small, freshly blown in avalanche crowns, but we weren't able to kick out any slabs on the short slopes we tested. Shooting cracks darting out from our ski tips to outline a small start zone was enough confirmation of dangerous conditions for us.

Our profile produced easy results down 20 cm and moderate, resistant results down 40-50 cm at the base of a wind slab.