Winds on Pre-Laurel Peak: SW 20-25 G33 Temp 30° Percent of Normal: 98%

Hold on to your hats. Winds from the SW ramped up overnight blowing in the 20-25 mph range with gusts in the 30's. They'll continue to increase today as the first wave in an approaching storm system blows through. Unfortunately, it looks to be all huff and puff and no fluff for us today, and we'll see cloudy skies, continued warm temperatures and windy conditions. The second wave arrives this evening with even stronger winds and plummeting temperatures. We should get a shot of cold smoke out of this but amounts aren't too impressive. I'm still holding on to about 6". The rest of the week will be sunny and dry with gradually warming temperatures.

It's going to be a little rugged out there today with flat light, windy conditions, and a variety of snow surfaces to contend with. Sheltered, northerly aspects harbor the best chance for finding soft snow. With southerly facing slopes well crusted over, there isn't much snow available for transport, but with these wind speeds, we may still see some snow being blown and drifted into fresh slabs on leeward slopes. As snow begins to accumulate tonight, expect windslabs to become more widespread by tomorrow. A weak layer of faceted snow at the base of the snowpack remains our primary concern. The likelihood of triggering a deep avalanche down to this weak layer has decreased significantly, but keep the odds in your favor by avoiding areas of steep, rocky, radical terrain, or slopes with complex terrain features. Thinner snowpack areas remain suspect where your weight can much more easily affect the weak layer. We are getting reports of people pushing into steep, consequential terrain without incident, but before you do this, pull out your shovel, or simply probe around. I'd personally like to see close to 200 cms of snow before I'd feel good about skiing something steep.

We received a couple observations over the weekend. See the most recent observations here.

I took a trip around to the east side yesterday to see how things were holding up and was pleasantly surprised to see how much snow was still hanging around on southerly aspects and at lower elevations over there.

The massive SE face of mighty Mount Peale on the right with some rocks exposed on due S. The SE face of Mount Tukuhnikivatz in the distance looks well covered.