The west/northwest winds have plenty of new snow to work with and fresh slabs of wind drifted snow may be sensitive and up to 6-12" thick. You are most likely to find fresh wind-drifted snow on leeward aspects facing north through east and south, but the strong winds can work around terrain features which means wind drifts can be found on any aspect at the mid and upper elevations. Cracking in the denser, wind-drifted snow is a sign of instability.

Trend: Steady

Cold and dry weather during the middle of November created a persistent weak layer (PWL) of faceted snow on nearly all slopes. This PWL is now covered by (1) 12-18" of storm snow earlier this week, followed by (2) over two days of intense winds that created hard slabs of wind-drifted snow at the mid and upper elevations and now (3) 6-10" of new snow overnight. All of this means there are now dense slabs of new and wind-drifted snow 2-3' deep in places on top of this buried PWL. Avalanches failing on this PWL may be over 3' deep and propagate hundreds of feet wide. Thursday's remotely-triggered avalanche is a classic example of a hard wind slab failing on a persistent weak layer.

The strong winds from Wednesday/Thursday and overnight into Friday morning have complicated things with no clear pattern of where the wind drifted snow has loaded the slopes. You may - or may not - get warning signs of collapsing and these dense slabs may allow you to get well onto a slope before avalanching, possibly well-above you. The only strategy is avoid all avalanche terrain as the buried PWL is widespread on almost most aspects and at all elevations.

Trend: Steady

You may still find the new snow sensitive this morning, especially during any period of high snowfall rates. Watch for sluffing or sensitive soft slabs of new snow as signs of instability. The new snow should become less sensitive as the day progresses and snowfall ends.

Trend: Decreasing