Tetons

Fresh snow and strong southwest winds have formed new soft slabs 6 to 18 inches in depth in mid and upper elevation avalanche starting zones. These slabs lie upon slick old snow surfaces comprised of hard crust and windpacked snow and a weak layer of lighter density faceted snow. These new surface slabs could be easily triggered today on steep wind loaded aspects. Some potential exist for these surface slabs to step down several feet to a persistant weak layer of faceted snow formed in early November. Use caution as the hazard has increased significantly overnight and will continue to increase as the day progresses. At the lower elevations isolated pockets of new soft slab up to one foot in depth could be human triggered in steep wind loaded starting zones.