24 Hour Snow: 0" 72 Hour Snow: 0" Season Total Snow: 82" Depth at Gold Basin: 37"

Under clear skies mountain temperatures are in the high 20's and winds are light out of the southeast. Shifting to southwesterly, they'll be on the increase later today as a low pressure system tracks by to the south. Speeds along ridge tops will average 15-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. High temperatures will again be in the 40's at 10,000'. A second system is on track to slide through the Four Corners on Monday bringing us a decent chance for a small amount of snow. 3"-5" seem likely. Clouds linger through Tuesday with a break in the action on Wednesday before a stronger, but less organized system begins to affect the area on Thursday.

It's really felt like spring in the mountains the past several days and the snow surface has felt the effects. In my travels up around Mann's Peak yesterday I found some decent "faux" corn conditions on a southeast aspect. If you get on it fairly early, south slopes that still have snow cover should have a supportable, corn like surface this morning. Stay too late, and they quickly become damp and punchy. Northwest winds a few days back etched the snow surface in exposed locations on northerly aspects and you'll have to seek shelter for soft snow. Underneath, the snowpack is still like early January. At 66% of average, and with long dry spells in between storms, the snowpack remains shallow, weak, and faceted. The Valentine's Day storm capped it all off with a dense slab creating a text book "strong snow over weak snow" scenario. Outward signs of instability such as collapsing and whumphing have diminished, the surface is tired and worn, and things don't appear to be all that dangerous. But the underlying structure remains very poor and I don't trust it. The only safe strategy is to keep your slope angles to less than 30 degrees which is what I plan to continue to do, possibly for the remainder of the season.

For more on this check out the UAC blog post Understanding the Risk of Persistent Weak Layer Avalanches .

In spite of the Valentine's storm, the high peaks never fully recovered from the dry and windy January. Let's hope for a miracle March starting later this week! From left to right: Mounts Peale, Mellenthin, Tukuhnikivatz, and Tukno.