...who stated it perfectly. The mountains are never safe...ever. Enjoy them. With the growing number of people enjoying the backcountry, you will always have people who don't know what they're doing and it will catch up to them. You will also have people with lots of experience and know-how, and that too will catch up to them. Point being, all in all, the mountains decide when and who...not us. So by even traveling there, we assume the risks involved, whether we understand them or not. We can hope that most people who take to the mountains would also take the time to learn about what they are doing, but we can't be our brother's keeper. If people are reading through threads on TAY to learn how to enjoy the backcountry, or posting stuff on here to "teach" other how to enjoy the backcountry, you're looking in the wrong place. Take a class, or find someone who is experienced to teach you.
As for avys, windloading, stability, weather, snowpack, terrain (and traps), routefinding, and everything else that goes into making a backcountry trip a roundtrip, in my opinion we are somewhat discussing a moot point. With all the microclimates found in the cascades, even if the avy danger is "high", I know that I've encountered some people who still know of relatively safe approaches leading to a nice, stable slope, sometimes with 8" of blower pow to slash...yes, even in the Snoqualmie area. As Pete A said, good terrain selection and stability tests can go a long ways.
Personally I did not go out. Why? Malfunctioning beacon...otherwise, I would have been in a couple of short, nicely gladed, relatively safe areas in Snoqualmie area...
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