Strong winds continue this morning and combined with two feet of new snow have created dangerous conditions. At 3 AM the WYDOT was able to trigger a slab avalanche on an east aspect of Glory Bowl that ran to the highway. Dangerous deep slabs are a hazard at the upper elevations and surface slabs formed by strong winds present a hazard at all elevations. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route finding and conservative decisions are essential for safe travel in avalanche terrain today.
Dangerous slab with depths to five feet could release naturally or be human trigger on east through north to west aspects at the upper elevations. Although these slabs could release naturally multiple tracks on a suspect slope are not an indication of stability.
Winds slabs formed by southwest to northwest winds could be human triggered at the mid and lower elevations and have potential to release naturally at the upper elevations. These slabs could fail on a variety of weaknesses that include density changes, slick sun crust, surface hoar or faceted snow and could be one to three in depth.
A cold high pressure ridge will be over the western mountains of Wyoming overnight and into the morning. A weak low pressure trough moving in from northern Idaho and western Montana could produce areas of light snowfall in the afternoon and evening. Winds will back towards the southwest and decrease to speeds of 10 to 15 miles per hour. Temperatures will drop to 10 to 20 degrees below zero overnight and rise to near zero to 10 degrees above zero during the day.Large destructive avalanches will continue to be a hazard at the upper elevations where a persistent weak layer of faceted snow near the base of the snow pack sits upon an October crust. Although the potential for additional natural releases will continue to decrease the potential for humans to trigger these dangerous slides will continue. Larger triggers such as snow machines are especially vulnerable. That said the weight of a single person could trigger one of these monster slides and other tracks should not be considered to be an indication of stability. These slabs could have crown depths to five feet. Lingering wind slabs one to three feet in depth could also be human triggered on a variety of aspects at the mid and upper elevations. The general avalanche hazard is expected to be CONSIDERABLE at the upper elevations, MODERATE at the mid elevations and LOW at the lower elevations.
