With more snow falling this morning and strong south winds blowing, any slope with wind drifted snow will produce slab avalanches today. Some can be triggered by people. Some will occur on their own. Winds can load a slope 10x faster than snowfall alone and the combination of winds and snowfall will make any wind-loaded slope very dangerous to be near or under.

Even though winds are blowing from the south, slopes at any aspect and elevation can be affected. Look for signs of recent wind loading such as smooth, rounded, pillowly deposits of snow.

Avalanches may also occur on slopes not affected by the wind as Trent and I saw yesterday. Any steep slope or road cut was easy to trigger either a sluff or a soft slab avalanche in the new snow. The photo below shows a tiny road cut that buried half of a snowmobile. Imagine what a slightly bigger slope could do. It would be easy to bury a person.

With the current load of snow which will be approaching 3 inches of water weight, all bets are off as to how the snowpack will react. There are persistent weak layers of sugary, faceted snow crystals near the ground and also buried 2-3 feet deep just under the new snow. These weak layers can produce large slab avalanches that can be triggered from some distance away or even from flat terrain under a steep slope.