Despite a cold start this morning, today's strong sunshine will quickly heat up south and west facing slopes. Today will be the first real dose of sunshine, and I expect plenty of naturally occurring loose wet avalanches. Areas with exposed rocks will heat up the most and produce more avalanches.

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Winds at 9000 feet yesterday were blowing 25-35 mph gusting to 45 from the west, and there should be slabs of wind drifted snow at upper elevations in the typical places. These may or may not be easy to trigger today, but I wouldn't trust them. Avoid any slopes that were loaded by winds during this week's storm.

Cornices are massive. When these break they are a significant hazard by themselves which often break much further back than you expect.

Conditions can change really fast this time of year, and I expect that the new snow should be bonding to itself and underlying layers fairly quickly. With so much new snow; however, I still have some uncertainty with how quickly this is happening. To be sure, assess the new snow by looking for obvious signs of instability like collapsing. Evaluate bonding within the new snow by diging a snowpit only 2-3 feet deep and perform an extended column test. Also, jump on small test slopes to see how they react.