Very dangerous avalanche conditions exist on drifted slopes this morning after sustained strong south and west winds raked exposed slopes with lots of fresh transportable snow. Accumulating snow and continued strong southwest wind today will only cause the danger to continue to rise and the problem to become more widespread. Drifts have built up on widespread weak surface snow and buried sugary or faceted weak layers, and dangerous avalanche conditions exist at all elevations.

Fast moving and far running soft storm slabs and loose sluffs involving fresh snow are likely today on slopes with significant accumulations. Soft slab avalanches stepping down to sugary persistent weak layers are possible even in sheltered terrain. Loose sluffs were common in steep terrain at all elevations yesterday and the trend will likely continue today.

The shallow snow on the ground in many areas has become loose, sugary, and faceted in the past couple weeks, and last week's very cold temperatures didn't help. We've found particularly weak snow at mid and lower elevations in the backcountry, and anywhere where the total snow is fairly shallow. At upper elevations and in deeper areas, weak sugary snow exists just under the surface. Feathery surface hoar was widespread across the zone. Wind drifts formed and storm slabs are building up on top of sugary or faceted snow, and if you trigger an avalanche today it will probably fail on a buried persistent weak layer. You could trigger avalanches remotely, from a distance, or below. This instability is likely to last for a while, and we don't expect the snow to stabilize very quickly.