Three riders were caught and carried in separate avalanches on Sunday. These avalanches occurred on steep, southeast-facing slopes above 10,000 feet and involved new snow that was likely wind-drifted from northwest winds Saturday into Sunday morning. The new snow may be less sensitive today, but human-triggered avalanches remain possible on all aspects, especially on upper elevation slopes that were wind-drifted. Sluffing on steep slopes is also possible.

Avalanches failing within recent storm or wind-drifted snow may run fast and far on the Christmas Rain Crust.

An avalanche running on the Christmas Rain Crust involving a rider being caught and carried.

There is a persistent weak layer (PWL) of weak, faceted snow and depth hoar down near the ground on northerly-facing aspects above about 9,000 feet. Sunday's avalanche on Sunset Peak failed on this PWL, control work from resorts also indicate avalanches failing on the PWL remain possible, and full propagation with extended column tests on this PWL continue.

Dealing with a PWL is already tricky business, and now the Christmas Rain Crust further complicates things as the crust may be strong enough on some slopes to support the recent load of new and wind-drifted snow, while other slopes may have a thinner crust where a rider may be able to affect the PWL and trigger an avalanche up to three feet deep and over a hundred feet wide. Ski cuts are notoriously ineffective tools at mitigating this problem as they often allow you to get well onto a slope before triggering an avalanche that propagates above you; existing tracks on a slope are also not an indication of stability (there are plenty of tracks adjacent to the Sunset Peak slide.)

Nikki Champion was near Davenport Hill in Silver Fork on Sunday and her video describes the current snowpack structure where the Christmas Rain Crust further complicates our PWL problem.