We have an unusual condition. South facing slopes are usually the stable aspect, but right now, it seems to be the aspect with the poorest structure. There is a sun crust-facet sandwich layer buried about a foot or so deep that pops out fairly easily and it's fairly widespread on the sunny aspects. (See Video) It made me more nervous than the lingering wind slabs. I suspect it will settle out quickly and most of the instability probably already has. But this layer was responsible for 2-3 human triggered avalanches lately and Snowbird got another sizable release on a SE aspect with explosives. I'm not sure it was the same layer.

With the warming temperatures in the forecast, we should keep an eye on this layer. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen with it. The sun and warming will make it more unstable and in the long run, the heat will stabilizes the layer. It will be a teeter-totter between those two processes, so I'm curious what will happen with it. I don't have a lot of experience with these. But don't assume south aspects are safe, as they usually are.

Lingering wind deposits along the high ridges may still be a problem on Thursday. With very cold temperatures, many of these may be preserved longer than usual. As usual, be suspicious of wind deposits on steep slopes. They are hard to see because they are covered up by new snow.