Looking to up your avalanche knowledge? Want to feel more confident about making decisions in the backcountry with your group? Join us for a Backcountry 101 for snowmobilers on January 28 and 29. This life-saving course is designed for snowmobilers and snow-bikers taking their first on-snow avalanche class or looking to refresh previous training. For more information and to sign up, click here.

Sunny slopes will remain firm until softened up again by today's warmth, while shady and northerly facing slopes still hold dry, settled powder. Riding conditions remain great, particularly in sheltered areas protected from the wind. That fast and fun, "loud powder" is surface hoar and recrystallized surface snow, which will become the next layer of concern after it's buried and loaded up by the inevitable next storm. A LOW avalanche danger implies that avalanches are unlikely, meaning avalanches are still possible on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, especially in extreme (very steep) or outlying and rarely visited terrain.

Feathery surface hoar is frost growing on the snow surface. If preserved and buried intact, it can become a devious, persistent weak layer.

The snowpack appears to be mostly stable across the zone currently, with minimal recent activity and no reported avalanches failing on a persistent weak layer of facets near the ground since December 7. We recommend people use normal caution in the backcountry today, and our concerns include potential for avalanches of wind-drifted snow in exposed upper-elevation terrain and avalanches of wet snow on steep sunny slopes. Remember, even a small avalanche can carry you over cliffs and into trees, and it may step down into older, weak snow, resulting in a much larger and more dangerous avalanche.

The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400 feet reports 28°F and 58 inches of total snow. At the UAC Card Canyon weather station at 8700 feet, it's 24°F, and there is 44 inches of total snow. Currently at 9700 feet on Logan Peak, the wind is blowing 25 to 30 mph from the northwest. It's 18°F on Paris Peak at 9540 feet, and the wind is blowing 31 to 36 mph from the north. Today will be another beautiful day in the mountains with mostly sunny skies and temperatures reaching 29°F. Steady winds will blow from the northwest. The strong high pressure will remain over the region through much of next week, with a continued temperature inversion keeping hazy conditions in the valleys and fair, unseasonably mild conditions in the mountains. There is faint hope on the horizon, though, with a hint of measurable precipitation a week from now, next Friday.