A persistent weak layer (PWL) of faceted snow and depth hoar exists in the bottom foot of the snowpack on mid and upper-elevation slopes primarily facing west, north and east. Snowfall and wind-drifted snow this past week have overloaded these weak layers, with several remotely-triggered avalanches. Yesterday's increased winds and snowfall will only continue to add load and stress to this snowpack. Thursday's remote slide in Banana Days and then sympathetically-released slide in adjacent Main Days illustrates how strong and connected the slab on top of the PWL has become.

These recent avalanches - as well as continued loud, booming collapses and cracking - are huge red flags, telling us that the weak snowpack structure still exists and needs more time.

Over the last two days, the Westerly and Northwesterly winds have remained strong enough to drift snow, with gusts near 70 mph at the highest of ridgelines. The combination of any lingering soft snow from before yesterday and a few new inches of snow throughout the day will have allowed for new wind drifts to form at mid and upper elevations. With sustained high winds can deposit snow around terrain features on almost any aspect, called cross-loading. For this reason, I would expect to find sensitive slabs of wind drifted snow at all upper and mid-elevation slopes, especially along with terrain features such as ridgelines, sub ridges, and gullies.