Today’s stronger winds have lots of snow to drift and blow around. Wind drifts, known as wind slabs, often look smooth and rounded, and when you find one, they can be cracky, denser and deeper than the surrounding snow. As the winds are getting well down into the mid elevations, look for drifts along both mid and upper elevation ridge lines and cross-loaded along gully walls, mid slope break overs and sub ridges. Avoid any wind drifts on steep slopes. The winds are significantly stronger at the upper elevations, so be aware of steep wind drifted slopes above – natural avalanches are possible.

The weight of Thursday’s snow was enough to make the buried faceted weak layers reactive once again on a few slopes. Today’s westerly winds will be adding more snow and weight onto slopes with buried facets – especially upper elevation slopes facing northerly through easterly, making them easier to trigger. A wind slab avalanche could trigger a deeper slide, failing on one of these faceted weak layers.

There is a lot of variability in the snowpack strength and depth, with facet layers both mid pack and near the ground. Slopes with a shallower snowpack tend to have weaker snow – including slopes that have slid one or more times this year. Cracking and collapsing are bulls-eye clues to instability.

Even with the cooling breeze, sun and warm temperatures may heat the snow on steeper southeast through westerly facing slopes today. Human triggered and natural wet loose sluffs will become possible as the snow becomes damp and wet, possibly running longer than expected on the slick crusts beneath. Roller balls are often the first sign on heating snow.