Terrain Choices are the key

We rode up to Daisy Pass, then back to Marty's. We skied up to the starting zone and found the thinner (100-150 cm deep) and weaker snowpack typical for this area. We found weak depth hoar near the ground and layers of surgery facets in the middle of the snowpack. This path slide 1.5 weeks ago, likely triggered by a rider. Four days ago a slide caught two riders and seriously injured one on the same aspect of West Henderson a mile from where we were. The snowpack structure was similar. The scary thing is Cooke right now is that avalanches are not happening on every slope or every day, but when they have occurred recently, they've been big.

We recommend either choosing terrain very unlikely to slide because it is less than 30 degrees and not underneath steep slopes, or choosing terrain that minimizes the consequences of getting caught - small slopes that don't have terrain traps like gullies, trees, rocks, or cliffs. And always, travel one at a time on the slopes while watching your partners from a safe spot.

We saw a smaller natural avalanche on Ray's while driving into town, north-facing slope, 2-3' deep, not very wide. This was the only recent avalanche we saw today, but the visibility was poor and we didn't cover much ground.