Another inch or two of snow overnight shouldn't change the avalanche hazard much. Moderate overnight winds from the West will continue to form Wind Slabs on East slopes at and above treeline.
Continued Moderate wind from the West and North West will continue to load East slopes. As the stormy weather breaks a bit tomorrow and folks venture out farther and higher, don't be lulled into complacency by Light daytime winds. Look for signs of previous windloading from Sunday afternoon or overnight. Wind slabs can take 24 - 48 hours to settle.
The riding conditions have been improving slowly, and the winter weather has been a pleasant change. By Monday morning the Cascades will have received between 3 and 7 inches in the last 24 hrs., and the dreaded rain crust is now burried 6 - 12 inches. Although there are weakness in the storm snow, we haven't seen any propogation in sheltered terrain. The wind was begining to move snow at treeline and in the alpine this afternoon.
There is a variety of weak snow grains in the upper snow pack including poorly developed facets in the vicintiy of the rain crust. So far we haven't seen any avalanche activity on this layer, and I'm not expecting any, but it's something we'll be keeping our eyes on.
