Very dangerous avalanche conditions exist on drifted slopes after sustained strong south and west winds found plenty of fresh snow to drift into avalanche starting zones. Drifts have built up on widespread weak surface snow and buried sugary or faceted weak layers, and dangerous avalanche conditions exist at all elevations.

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. Slabs of stiffer snow formed on top of faceted snow, and if you trigger an avalanche today it will fail on a buried persistent weak layer. We've found particularly weak snow at mid and lower elevations in the backcountry, and anywhere where the total snow is fairly shallow, and soft slab avalanches stepping down to sugary persistent weak layers are possible even in sheltered terrain. At upper elevations and in deeper areas, weak sugary snow exists just under the preexisting surface. Feathery surface hoar was also widespread across the zone. You could trigger avalanches remotely, from a distance, or below. This instability is likely to last for a while, and the snow on many slope will not stabilize very quickly.