We have a poor snowpack structure with strong snow over weak snow. And although we have received no snow this past week, there has been moderate to strong winds the past few days that have created areas with a denser slab of wind-blown snow on top of this weaker faceted snow. Over this past week there have been fewer avalanches and less collapsing and cracking reported, but some recent field observations still report full propagation with extended column tests, indicating the propensity of the slab to propagate if you did get a collapse of the buried persistent weak layer.

This poor structure is present on mid and upper elevation slopes facing west, through north, to southeast. Although avalanches are becoming less common, they are still possible and I would not be surprised to hear of another human-triggered avalanche failing on this buried persistent weak layer and I personally will continue to avoid slopes steeper than 30° in this suspect terrain.

Strong winds the past few days have created hard wind drifts in isolated areas at the mid and upper elevations. Although the winds have been primarily from the west/northwest when winds are this strong they can work through terrain and create drifts on almost any aspect.