Since this past Wednesday, the Salt Lake mountains have received over 2' of storm snow with a significant wind loading event on Thursday. During this period, there were numerous human-triggered avalanches, many of which were triggered remotely (from a distance), as well as several large natural avalanches. Mitigation results from control work at resorts also produced large avalanches. Although winds have diminished, since Sunday nearly another 0.5" of water weight was added to the snowpack. Field observations from Sunday included another remotely-triggered avalanche, continued reports of collapsing, as well as full propagation with extended column tests, all indications the weak faceted snow that can be found on aspects facing west, through north, to east remains reactive. If you choose to ride a slope steeper than about 30 degrees on one of these aspects you are likely to trigger a large avalanche that will be 2-3' deep and may run several hundred feet wide. Hmmmm ....

But, do not despair! Storm snow over the past 5 days has filled in southerly aspects where there is no weak faceted snow down near the ground, providing a much safer alternative than aspects facing the northern half of the compass. Topped off with legendary Wasatch powder from Sunday and overnight, these southerly aspects are providing 5-star riding on December 3.

Yesterday I was finding the super-low density storm snow to sluff easily on steeper test slopes. Although not entraining large amounts of snow, these sluffs could knock you off of your skis/board or carry you into a terrain trap. Additionally, for a few hours overnight there was a slight uptick in northwest winds at the highest elevations, and you may find pockets of small wind drifts on southeast/east aspects along ridgelines above 10,000'. Although winds are forecasted to remain light today, any bump in wind speeds may quickly creative fresh sensitive soft slabs.