Today's snow combined with SW winds will form fresh wind slabs that should be easy to trigger today. With continued snowfall and wind through the morning and into the afternoon, these wind slabs will remain unstable and will grow in size. These wind slabs may be extra sensitive because they are resting on snow from Wednesday that became slightly faceted and weak during the cold weather.

Look for these fresh wind slabs mostly on NE facing slopes as a result of SW winds, but swirling mountain winds can load or cross load slopes on all aspects. The best thing to do is simply look for evidence of fresh wind loading and avoid those areas.

Many slopes on the northern half of the compass at mid and upper elevations that held old snow became weak and faceted. This weak snow is mostly on top of a very very hard ice crust now buried 1-2 feet deep. On slopes not affected by the wind, avalanches may break on this faceted snow if not first thing this morning, then they may happen later this afternoon. To assess this avalanche problem, test very small slopes and see how the new snow reacts under your feet. Also, dig a quick snowpit until you hit a very hard ice layer and perform a quick stability test.