Gusty westerly winds will accompany the at-times heavy snowfall today and continue on into the night as they slowly veer to the northwest. This is not the usual theme as the winds tend to lose steam after the cold front has moved through. It's easy to become complacent with spring storms (especially now because the old deeper slabs are dormant), but spring storms can be highly convective with quite variable conditions from drainage to drainage. Even though I expect the snow to bond fairly well to the old snow surfaces, much depends on the character of the storm.
Hot Tip! Instability and avalanche conditions spike during periods of particularly high snowfall rates. Same goes for sustained wind drifting with hourly speeds of roughly 15-30mph. The good news is that the instability should readily show its cards: Test slopes, ski cuts and the usual bag of tricks will reveal much about the snow today. Remember with ski cutting, you're moving diagonally across the slope, crossing to safety, and moving quickly from one area to the next. It can be an effective tool, but dangerous with the wrong conditions, in the wrong terrain, and by inexperienced practitioners.
Learn more about wind slabs here. Or check out a nice video by AIARE below.
Wind Slab Avalanches from AIARE Avalanche Education on Vimeo.