(Let's call it "new-ish" snow.) There are three possible issues to watch for with our snowfall from last Thursday:

1. Wet Loose Snow: Expect minor, wet-loose avalanche activity on solar/sunny slopes as the day warms. Although these should be minor, be sure not to get caught in a steep terrain trap or carried over rocks.

2. Wind Drifts: Although most wind drifts have settled out and are now unreactive, there are some upper elevation slopes where you can find dense wind drifts that formed Friday or Saturday that may be reactive, especially on slopes with a preserved layer of surface hoar down 6-18 inches deep.

3. Sluffing: The snow surface is quickly weakening with facets and surface hoar in the top few inches of snow on shady, northerly aspects which may sluff easily on steep slopes. Just as with minor wet, loose snow, even a small sluff could carry you over rocks in steeper terrain.

Our season-long, persistent weak layer of faceted snow down near the ground is still present in our snowpack. Although we are trending toward dormancy with this problem, human-triggered avalanches remain possible in steep, rocky, upper-elevation terrain - particularly on slopes facing north and northeast. Slopes that have been recently wind-loaded are most suspect.

(Notice we have removed mid-elevations from the locator rose for this avalanche problem. The most suspect slopes are upper-elevations, but some weak snow has also been found as low as 9,300 feet.)