Sunday's overnight dump (50cm) sits atop surface hoar or a suncrust. These storm slabs will be reactive to human loads and may propagate widely.
Conservative choices are wise; even gladed tree runs aren't the usual safe havens.
Several surface hoar layers in the upper snowpack may wake up with the new snow load. If triggered, there is potential to step down to the deeper Dec 1 crust/facet layer, resulting in a very large avalanche.
The new snow has buried the Jan 29 surface hoar (5-15mm) and will likely be easy to trigger, especially in steeper, unsupported terrain. Manage your sluff appropriately, especially in gullies and with people above/below you.
50cm of new snow and mod W'ly winds have buried the Jan 29 surface hoar (5-15mm), which is a crust on steep solar aspects and hard surfaces everywhere else. This layer will be easy to trigger and could step down to deeper layers.
Flurries and a mix of sun/cloud, followed by cold air Wed
Tonight: Cloudy with flurries, trace amounts, Alp low -15*C, gusty mod W winds
Tues: Mix of sun/cloud with flurries, trace amounts, Alp high -15*C, light N winds
Wed: Mix of sun/cloud, Alp high -19*C, light SW winds
Thurs: Cloudy with flurries, trace amounts, Alp high -9*C, light SW winds
50cm from Sunday now buries the Jan 29 surface hoar (5-15mm) and crusts on steep solar aspects. Expect to find storm slab at all elevations, deeper in wind-deposited areas at Alpine and Treeline elevations. The Jan 20 surface hoar (2-4mm) is down 60-70cm. The Dec 1 crust/facet combo is down 1.5 - 2.5m.
Artillery control Sunday night/Monday morning produced numerous avalanches to sz 3-3.5 in the park.
The natural avalanche cycle continues to be driven by mod/strong winds in the Alpine redistributing the new snow and overloading the Jan 29th surface hoar/suncrust layer. This layer exists at all elevations/all aspects and will persist for a while.
