Wet snow avalanches remain a serious concern for today. All aspects and elevations with slopes >30 degrees should be given a wide berth. Stick to low-angle terrain and don't hang out under steep slopes, as you are exposing yourself to overhead hazards.
Wet loose avalanches often start out like a cinnamon roll, heading down the hill. In soggy conditions like we are currently experiencing they can pick up significant snow and become dangerous. Triggering a wet loose on a steep slope with consequential terrain below you could yield negative results. Until we receive a hard freeze, avoid traveling in steep terrain and don't hang out under slopes >30 degrees.
If you make it above the water-logged snowpack at the near and below treeline elevations, you could encounter wind slabs in the alpine. The wind has been primarily blowing out of the Southwest, redepositing and building fresh slabs on Northeast aspects. Signs of wind slab include dune-like formations, cornices, drum-like snow, and shooting cracks.
The Wallowas and Elkhorns have not seen a solid freeze at the various snotel sites and weather stations since the early morning hours on Sunday. Lower elevation snowpack will still be dangerous for Wet Loose activity on slopes greater than 30 degrees. Some areas have received greater rainfall totals than others. If you are sinking into your boot tops in wet, soggy snow it's prudent to avoid traveling on or under any slope >30 degrees.
It's time to dial back your terrain selection until we receive a good hard freeze and have a better understanding of how the snowpack is reacting to the new load. Conditions have changed dramatically over the past couple of days, and so should our decision-making and terrain selection. The snowpack doesn't like rapid change, and we just had a good amount of cold snow, very cold temperatures until Sunday and then saw a major spike in freezing levels, rain on snow to 8,000' and multiple days without freezing conditions. We want to give mother nature a day or two to sort out the new load to the snowpack before we begin venturing back into steeper terrain.
