Nearly three feet of new snow has fallen with up to three inches of moisture during the past several days. West winds increased late yesterday and formed new wind slabs on leeward aspects overnight. Yesterday a large slab avalanche was triggered by a skier on Whimpys Knob, and the Wyoming Department of Transportation used a gas exploder to trigger a slide in Glory Bowl early this morning that deposited four to five feet of avalanche debris on the roadway. Skiers, riders and sledders are likely to easily trigger soft surface slabs up to three feet in depth on steep avalanche prone slopes. Safe travel procedures and conservative terrain choices are essential today.
At the mid and upper elevations west winds have formed soft surface slabs up to three feet in depth. These slabs could be easily triggered by humans who venture into steep wind loaded avalanche terrain. At the lower elevations pockets of slab up to 18 inches in depth could be triggered on very steep slopes.
A westerly flow will continue to bring moisture to the region tonight through Monday Night. Accumulations of five to eight inches are possible in the mountains overnight with another three to five inches possible during the day. This snowfall will be accompanied by west-southwest winds at speeds of 20 to 30 with gusts to 50 miles per hour. Temperatures will be in the 20s in the mountains and in the 30s in the valleys where some rainfall will likely occur in the afternoon.The general avalanche hazard is expected to be CONSIDERABLE in the Togwotee Pass/Continental Divide Trails Area and the Southwest Trails/Greys River Area. In the Teton Area it is expected to be CONSIDERABLE at the upper elevations and MODERATE at the mid and lower elevations. Humans are could trigger soft surface slabs one to three feet deep in steep wind loaded avalanche starting zones and in areas with where weak layers of faceted snow persist within the snowpack large dangerous hard slabs up to six feet in depth could be triggered by skiers, riders or snowmobilers.
