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 mid and upper elevations, any wind slab you trigger will likely fail on a buried persistent weak layer of faceted snow (see PWL below)

We now have two very distinct layers of faceted snow in the snowpack. The first is old October/November snow near the ground. The second is a newer layer of facets found 2–6 inches below the snow surface, sitting beneath a crust (see video).

Since last Wednesday (the 17th), we’ve picked up roughly 2–6 inches of new snow containing 0.30–1.43 inches of snow water equivalent. Snowpit tests continue to show full propagation, and backcountry riders are experiencing loud, audible collapsing. Yesterday, Brooke and I traveled with a conservative mindset, and I’d strongly encourage the same approach today, as the snowpack is ripe for triggering slab avalanches 1–2 feet deep and large enough to bury a person.

Yesterday, we found wet snow to be generally unreactive and eventually transitioning to cold, dry snow around 8,500 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.