Tetons

A foot of new snow with westerly winds have created easily triggered, soft slabs to two feet or more in depth on lee slopes at the mid and upper elevations. Slides could step down to older, hard slabs to four feet in depth in very steep areas near cliff bands, in couloirs or under cornices. Below 8000 feet the new snow rests on a slick rain crust and sloughs that rapidly become dangerous in size could be human triggered.Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious routefinding and conservative decision-making are essential today.

Light snowfall is likely overnight and could result in a couple inches of accumulation. On Thursday skies will be partly cloudy early. Light snowfall will develop in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the teens. Winds are expected to be westerly and increase to 20 to 30 miles per hour. The increasing west winds will continue to load upper elevation avalanche starting zones. Humans who venture onto steep slopes could trigger soft surface slabs up to two feet in depth. In steep rocky areas and on aprons above and below cliff areas some potential exists for these slabs to step down another foot or two into older layers of crust and faceted snow. The general avalanche hazard is expected to be CONSIDERABLE at the higher elevations (9,000 to 10,500 feet) of the Teton and Greys River/Southwest Trails areas and MODEATRE below these elevations in the these areas and in the Togwotee Pass/Continental Divide area.