Tetons

Six inches of new snow and strong southwest winds created easily triggered soft slabs to a foot in depth on steep, lee slopes at upper elevations. Steep areas below the new snow at upper and mid elevations hold dense,unstable slabs that sit on a persistent layer of weak, faceted snow. New slides or the burden of the new snow and people venturing onto these slopes could pull out deeper slabs an additional two to three feet deep. Careful snowpack evaluation and cautious route-finding are essential to safe travel today. At low elevations it is possible to trigger an isolated pocket of slab to 18 inches in depth in very steep terrain such as ravines.

A brisk northwest flow will continue to bring cold dry air to the region. Temperatures will drop to near zero at the higher elevations and to near 10 below in the valleys overnight. On Thursday skies will be mostly sunny. Daytime highs will rise into the teens. Winds will be northwesterly at 10 to 20 miles per hour.At the upper elevations small pockets of stiff wind slab up to a foot deep formed by northwest to north winds could be triggered by humans who venture into cliff areas and very steep avalanche starting zones. Areas of instability also persist in steep avalanche paths that did not experience avalanche activity during the holiday storm cycle. In these areas dense slabs up to 30 inches in depth lie upon a layer of buried surface hoar and a base of weak faceted snow. These slabs still have some potential to be triggered by the weight of a single person. For this reason the general avalanche hazard is expected to be MODERATE.