The wind has won

Last week's unconsolidated snow has been transformed into windslabs at treeline and in the alpine changing the way we have been thinking about and using terrain. Today we avoided any wind effected slopes. We came across an avalanche from yesterday and were surprised to see how far it spread across the slope; (see avalanche summary tab for details). December's cold weather has created sugary crystals in the snowpack that are weak. With the new wind slab above, this combination could create avalanches big enough to do damage.