For the best riding seek out sheltered slopes with the deepest snowpack that hasn't been wind-affected. Watch for sudden changes to the upper snowpack if the sun comes out!
With no new snow and diminishing winds the wind slab problem should be confined to isolated pockets on the lee side of ridges or ribs. However, with the sugary-faceted-weak snowpack, avalanches could potentially step down to the middle of the snowpack.
No new reports since the weekend. Keep sharing your observations via the MIN; it helps strengthen our information gathering.
In deeper zones near ridges the snowpack is around 120 to 170 cm, which is low for early December. Alpine terrain in windy areas is scoured and bare.
Surface: Boot top powder in deep areas. Same old crusts, facets, and rocks on wind scoured slopes.Upper-pack: In sheltered areas below the fresh snow is well developed surface hoar. Generally there's 40 to 70 cm of low density and faceting (aka weak) snow in the upper pack.Mid-pack: November crust, with a layer of soft facets above. This is the primary weak layer, found pretty much halfway down.Lower-pack: a mixture of old crusts and facets but some suggestions that these layers are a bit harder or stronger than what's found in other regions (e.g. Duffy or Hurley).
Saturday NightCooling temperatures with freezing level falling from more than 1000m to around 500m. Dry. South or SW wind moderate but diminishing.
SundayDry. Temps between -5 and 0 C. Freezing level rising to around 1000m. Light wind. Mostly cloudy.
MondayDry. Cooler with temps between -5 to -10 C and freezing level to valley bottom. Northerly light wind with outflow from the interior through the passes and in the major valleys. Mix of sun and cloud.
TuesdaySimilar to Monday but more sun and less cloud.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
