See above, and with the winds still at moderate to strong speeds still at 2000 hours and forecast to continue through the evening and early morning hours, this danger/hazard appears to be increasing at upper elevations.
Of note: The first few inches of new snow were very light density and during the day on Saturday the densities increased slightly with mixed forms and graupel constituting the remaining 5 inches of accumulations. As a result there may be a reactive weak layer at the new snow/old snow interface; and this may be exacerbated due to the strong likelihood that there were NSF's on the prestorm snow surface on shady aspects. Steep terrain was exhibiting minimal Loose Snow Dry avalanching late in the day on steep terrain features. And finally, Sundays forecast for 32 degrees and sunny at 9300 feet should help initiate a wet loose avalanche cycle in the new snow. Along with this, the southerly facing steep slopes have firm m/f crusts in place that should allow for these slides to run easily and possibly long.
Moderate overall today for wind slabs and lingering persistent slab possibilities. Mostly moderate on Sunday for reasons described above with natural wet loose with solar effects and daytime heating.
