I was looking at the existing snow surface ahead of a few storms this coming Monday-Wednesday. Clear skies and cold temperatures weakened the snow surface, with some near-surface facets (NSF) on shady slopes and radiation recrystallization (RR) facets on top of a thin heat crust on west aspects. The RR layer is interesting as it forms on top of a crust and we can often be surprised to find a weak layer on a sunny aspect. RR occurs with clear skies, cold temperatures, and sunshine create a thin heat crust a few millimeters below the snow surface, while cold temperatures prevent it from crusting at the surface. The clear skies allow the warmer snow just underneath the snow surface to radiate the heat back to the sky. Essentially, you have a faceting machine in hyper-drive in the top centimeter of snow!

The photos below show the RR facets on top of the crust. (If I'm suspicious of RR, I will invert my ski pole, and if I can write letters in the top few millimeters of snow with a crust underneath, it is likely a layer of RR facets.)

This photo is a sluff on a steep, northerly-facing slope where the top few cms has turned to near-surface facets. The size of the avalanche is small, but it demonstrates the weak snow at the surface.

Warm temperatures on Sunday with increasing winds should help erode these existing weaknesses at the surface, but I'll be watching to see how any fresh wind drifts ahead of the storm and any new snow during the storm bond to the existing snow surface.

Low danger on northerly aspects with a strong snowpack and no buried weak layers. Moderate danger on sunny aspects as the day warms. Photo below shows wet-loose sluffing on High Ivory that I observed at 12:00 pm as the rocks took on heat and began to shed snow.