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here.Currently: Skies are scattered and temperatures plummeted overnight, ranging through the low single digitis with lower-elevation trailheads (where cold air sinks) hovering near zero. Winds are westerly and have decreased slightly overnight: at mid-elevations winds are averaging in the teens with gusts in the 20's mph while upper-elevation wind speeds are averaging in the 30's with gusts around 40 mph.
Today: Partly-cloudy skies with temperatures in the teens F. The westerly winds will remain about the same throughout the day, averaging in the teens with gusts in the 20's at the mid elevations; averaging in the 30's with gusts in the 40's mph at upper elevations.
This Week: A series of weak weather systems will pass through the area bringing colder temperatures. Although each system looks depleted of any real moisture, we may get an inch or two of snow by Wednesday.
For those practicing Dryuary, I suspect this isn't what you had in mind. Continued storminess early this month exaggerated January snow/water totals of 29.5"/4.77" at the Collins Study Plot but it essentially hasn't snowed since January 8 with most regions reporting fewer than 12" of snow over the past 3+ weeks. The cold and clear weather has weakened the snow surface with the top several inches of snow now very weak and faceted. Yesterday while I traveled in Mineral Fork, I found that even firm snow surfaces initially textured by the wind were beginning to facet and deteriorate. Drew's video below illustrates the current weak snow surface across the range.
What does weak snow at the surface mean? For now, this "recycled powder" continues to provide decent travel and riding conditions in sun and wind-sheltered terrain. But once storms do return (and they will), we will possibly enter a period of dangerous avalanche conditions.
Yesterday there was one report of a small human-triggered soft slab of wind drifted snow in
Upper Lambs Canyon. This avalanche was on an east aspect on a 32° slope at 8,700' on a heavily wind-loaded slope, no one was caught or carried.
On Sunday, a
catch-and-carry on the Catcher's Mitt on Kessler where a skier triggered a sluff in the weak surface snow on a steep, 40° slope. The skier was briefly caught and carried over a 10' cliff band and fortunately stopped short before going over a 30' cliff. I encourage you to read through this
honest, well-described account of how getting caught in a small avalanche can be consequential in steep terrain.
