Its chilly out there! We are slowly gaining confidence with the weak layers in the snowpack, but it will take time before its "good to go".
Weather Forecast
An arctic ridge over the area brings mostly clear, dry and cold conditions through the end of the week. There is a chance of light flurries along the divide but little accumulation is expected. Winds are forecasted to be light Thursday increasing Friday. A warming trend arrives towards the the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
The upper pack consists of storm snow from earlier in the month that is starting to settle and bond. This overlies a well settled mid-pack. The previously reported weak layers within the mid-pack (Dec 15, Jan 6, and Jan 16 layers) are becoming stronger and only producing hard to no results with pit tests.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches reported or observed in the last 48 hours.
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.