Overall, not too many current avalanche problems to deal with. The snowpack in most places is deep and homogenous. Amazingly so. There is, however, weak snow from this weeks clear cold nights that is now buried. For the most part today there wasn't enough new snow on top to be a problem. However, in wind affected terrain there was just enough for some sensitive shallow soft slabs in steep terrain that gets a lot of windloading.

The winds really didn't blow that hard before snow started, and calmed down in the afternoon. By 2 pm the snow was falling straight out of the sky. As a result, the near surface facets and surface hoar that were formed this week were preserved intact on many slopes. Regarding the NSF, it didn't look like they were very well developed or overly weak where we were today, but time will tell how weak they turn out to be. Regarding the surface hoar, I found preserved surface hoar up to 9,800' on a N facing slope. It was hard to find as it is mixed in with the light density snow. Again, time will tell if enough was preserved to cause problems, but its worth keeping an eye on as the snow stacks up beginning of next week.