Yesterday's west and southwest winds peaked at 4:00 pm with speeds of 20-30 mph, gusting 40 across the upper elevation ridges. I saw massive plumes coming off the American Fork Twins and the east face of Hogum Hogback (LCC) in a complete whiteout with lots of blowing snow that cross-loaded many terrain features. Yesterday's reports of both hard and soft wind slabs triggered by backcountry riders tell us that avalanches are still possible today.

A thin layer of faceted snow sits above an ice crust and is buried 1-2' deep on slopes facing west to south to the southeast (see photo below). The most recent avalanche failing on this layer is from Reynolds Peak, reported yesterday. It was likely triggered on the 2nd.

Yesterday, I looked at the avalanche triggered on the 29th (photo below) and found this layering unreactive in stability tests. We are likely to drop this problem in the next few days as it becomes more and more unlikely to trigger an avalanche on this layer.

For those interested in the snow metamorphism, watch Mark Staples describing the process that created this PWL on a sunny aspect. During his outing yesterday, Drew Hardesty also found this metamorphism on the snow surface.