The most recent storm pulse laid down more than a foot of new dense, and wet snow in favored areas. Sustained winds out of the SW drifted this snow into fresh slabs and pillows at upper and exposed mid-elevations that face W-N-E. In some areas, you'll be able to find pockets of wind-drifted snow close to 2 feet deep that will be reactive to your body weight, with the potential to run fast and far on the slick Christmas Eve Rain Crust. Cracking along the surface is a sign you've likely found a slab.

These slides will be pockety, found mostly near ridgeline in catchment zones like the entry to tighter terrain. This type of terrain is also where these types of smaller slides can be the most consequential. If the sun comes for long periods or the temperatures rise more than forecast today, expect the possibility of being able to move small panels of wet new snow.

There remains an unlikely possibility for one of these shallower slides to step down to a more destructive slab avalanche running on weak snow near the ground—more info on that below.

Due to the supportability of the Christmas Eve Rain Crust (CERC) in the majority of terrain, it's unlikely that you can trigger a slab avalanche on the persistent weak layer. However, if you did, it has the potential to be a large, destructive, and potentially fatal avalanche.

Today, we bumped the likelihood of the PWL down to unlikely. This means that slabs running on weak snow below the CERC can range from unreactive to stubborn, however we want to stress that this does NOT mean that these are entirely off the menu if you head to just the wrong spot. The PWL is largely dependent on the supportability of the CERC above it. In higher, wind-exposed, W-N-E terrain where the snowpack may be thinner, the CERC may prove less supportable. These areas are most suspect for triggering a large slide. Some mid-elevation slopes fit this bill as well.