Wind Loading

The pre frontal winds from the south were creating some plumes on the higher peaks. On any wind exposed terrain, such as ridges, the wind blown snow filled in our tracks between laps. Since the snow was quite wind affected before this latest wind episode, the wind was not blowing around nearly as much snow as you would expect with wind steady 30, gusting to 50. The pre-existing snow had "been there, done that" from the wind a couple days ago, so today's wind was relatively benign as far as new wind slabs, at least where we were. If the wind really nukes overnight it might things might get more serious. Wind affected snow was not cracking or sensitive. I would rate the hazard as Moderate where we were. With the forecast snow Friday morning, it seems like the new snow will bond fairly well to today's snow surface since it's fairly dense, warm snow. But it looks like quite a sharp cold front, which will probably include lots of the usual monkey business with variable wind and density inversions within the new snow, which will likely be the largest hazard. But predictions are always pesky when the future is involved. Tomorrow, you should base your decisions on evidence, as usual--small, low-consequence, test slopes, hand pits, etc.