East Slopes Central

Expect varible surface conditions but you can still find soft, settled snow on shaded and sheltered slopes. Beware of firm or icy surfaces on some steep slopes. An incoming system may create very small, isolated areas of windslab in the alpine late in the day.

Expect to find a wide range of snow surface conditions on Friday. Lower elevations generally hold firm and icy crusts, with lumpy snow surfaces in the trees. You could find some nice, sheltered 'recycled powder' on shaded slopes above 5,000ft or so. Higher elevation slopes may hold stiff windboard that could be supportable or breakable. Katie found a recent, very small wind slab right beneath a cornice on Thursday.  This was on an east aspect at 6,600ft (see photo). With the incoming system, any new snow with increasing winds will easily transport and could form some very shallow but reactive slabs late in the day. Make sure to observe how wind-drifted snow reacts before committing to steep slopes, especially in consequential terrain.

The last significant storm (and resulting avalanche cycle) in the East Central was over MLK weekend. This formed a melt-freeze crust in the snowpack, which acts as a landmark in the upper snowpack. You can find this crust 6-18" below the surface in may areas. The cold weather has weakened the snow above it into near surface facets. Some areas hold isolated patches of recently buried surface hoar on shaded slopes. With more snow (hopefully) this creates a weak structure that we'll have to watch closely. If you get out, let us know what you find so we can all better track the surfaces that are soon to get covered up! See my observation from the NW side of Cannon Mountain on Feb 1 for an overview of what I found there.