Up to eleven inches of new light density snow has fallen in the mountains since noon yesterday. This new snow is not expected to bond well to old snow surfaces at the upper elevations and has fallen upon shallow snow depths at the mid elevations and bare ground at the lower elevations. At the upper elevations human triggered soft slab avalanches are possible in steep wind loaded terrain. Sunshine could cause loose snow sloughs in cliff areas and increase the sensitivity of the fresh surface slabs to failure. Caution and conservative terrain choices are advised in steep terrain at the mid and upper elevations as the consequences of human involvement with an avalanche in this early season snowpack could be severe.
At the higher elevations west to west-southwest winds with average speeds of 25 with gusts to 40 miles per hour overnight have created pockets of new soft slab on leeward aspects. These fresh surface slabs could be triggered by humans with depths to two feet.
Skies on Saturday are to be clear following areas of patchy fog in the morning. Temperatures are to rise into the upper thirties in the valleys and the upper twenties on mountain tops and in high terrain. The general avalanche hazard is expected Low in the early season snowpack with hazard limited to isolated pockets with depths to approximately 12 inches in very steep terrain above 9000 feet.
