Strong southwest wind increased last night and is still blowing this morning. Strong winds over the past few days have been efficient at moving any available snow and building fresh drifts along ridgelines and in exposed terrain. You’ll find the most suspect soft slabs of wind-drifted snow on leeward north through east-facing slopes, especially in the upper elevations, but watch for cross-loaded features on a variety of aspects—gullies, sub-ridges, rock bands, and on mid-slope breakovers.

On slopes facing west through north through east at the upper elevations, any wind slab you trigger will likely fail on a buried persistent weak layer of faceted snow (see PWL below)

Today, it will be possible to trigger a soft slab avalanche failing on a buried persistent weak layer, especially in upper-elevation areas with a shallow snowpack where wind has drifted additional snow into cohesive slabs.

Before the storm, faceted snow capped by crusts was common up to around 8,500 feet. Damp facets going into the storm, followed by warm temperatures, rain, and wet snow, may create short-term instability. Looking ahead, this same warming may eventually help strengthen persistent weak layers once the snowpack refreezes and stabilizes.

Derek's snowpit below:

Yesterday, we found wet snow to be generally unreactive and eventually transitioning to cold, dry snow around 8,000 feet, with no concerns for wet-snow avalanches. Today, however, even warmer temperatures are expected, with the rain–snow line rising to around 9,000 feet. Anytime rain falls on dry, cold snow, expect rapid formation of roller balls followed by wet-loose sluffs. Stay on guard if a rain-on-snow event develops.