West Slopes South

Say goodbye to the sun as we welcome snow back to our zone. We'll likely have to wait until Saturday to see enough accumulation for consequential avalanches. But don't turn off your avalanche brain, especially if you're headed for complex or extreme terrain.

The West South should be back in the storm track on Friday. Although not an impactful storm to begin with, we should see snow start to stack up by the time Saturday morning dawns. With cooling temperatures putting wet loose problems to bed and no new wind slabs reported, we believe that generally safe avalanche conditions will exist on Friday.

That doesn't mean avalanches can't occur - it just means they're unlikely. As mentioned above, you may still find a wind slab if you're high on a volcano or in extreme terrain. As the storm intensifies in the zone, the wind could create some new shallow pockets of unstable snow. These will likely be too small to be called consequential avalanches, but don't get tripped up by one near terrain traps. 

Most avalanche activity this weekend is expected to occur above the 2/7 crust. On slopes that have received direct solar input in recent days, there should be a firm surface crust with soft snow beneath it. Or the new snow may have undergone enough melt-freeze cycles that it is now joined to the 2/7 crust, forming a single complex. In shaded areas, the 2/7 could be as much as 6-12" deep at upper elevations or on the volcanoes. Reports this week indicate that last weekend's storm snow is poorly bonded to this layer, creating slick travel conditions and causing snow to slide easily, using the 2/7 as a bed surface. Below the 2/7, you'll find numerous crusts interspersed with primarily melt-forms. Weak points have been identified, but they shouldn't come into play unless we receive a large load or a significant trigger. 

What could come into play this weekend is the widespread weak surfaces. If Friday's snow comes in with very little wind as expected, weak surface hoar could be buried intact, creating a potential issue once we add snow in the coming days. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. There are several different surfaces out there for the new snow to fall on - surface hoar is just one of them.

For now, continue to focus on travel conditions. They've improved with the recent snow, but there are still plenty of holes, creeks, and exposed bare ground. Rocks, trees, or other natural features that were on the surface and visible at this time last week may now be buried a few inches out of sight.