Tetons

New snow to 7 inches overnight, in addition to over a foot in the past 48 hours, rests on slick crusts on southerly exposures and weak faceted snow on northerly aspects at upper elevations. People will easily trigger soft slabs to two feet in depth on avalanche prone slopes. Yesterday, skiers released full track slides in Mile Long and "B" couloirs in Grand Teton Park. Other reported slides pulled out wide areas and ran very quickly over long distances which resulted in deep deposition despite some crowns being relatively shallow. At mid and low elevations easily triggered sloughs will be dangerous in areas where debris can pile up such as ravines and terrain traps. In addition some potential remains for travelers, especially those on snowmachines, to trigger hard slabs up to six feet deep in some steep upper elevation avalanche paths.This forecast will be updated when wind information becomes available.

Tuesday will dawn partly cloudy and cold with lows well below zero. Winds will be westerly at 15 miles per hour in the morning increasing to 25 by evening. Daytime highs will rise to near ten degrees above and only light snow is expected ahead of a strong winter storm Tuesday night into Wednesday for which the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch.Soft slabs as deep as thirty inches in depth will continue to be possible despite cooler temperatures. Buried faceted snow will remain unstable and wide, fast moving slabs and sloughs could rapidly build to dangerous size. Some potential remains for deep hard slabs up to six feet in depth to be triggered, especially by snowmobiles. The possibility of triggering these deeper slabs is higher in the Continental Divide/Togwotee Pass area where the snowpack rests on a weak base of faceted snow. The General Avalanche Hazard will remain CONSIDERABLE Tuesday.