Recent snow and strong winds that veered from the southwest to northeast have formed surface slabs on a variety of aspects. These slabs lie over a snowpack that has persistent weak snow layers. At the mid and upper elevations, the new slabs could release to depths of two feet in wind loaded areas and could involve old snow layers to depths of four feet. At lower elevations the new snow lies directly on a weak faceted snowpack and slabs to eighteen inches in depth could be triggered on very steep wind loaded slopes. The danger rating has lowered to Moderate due to the sensitivity of the slabs decreasing and natural avalanche activity not being expected, Make no mistake that the chance continues for a single person to trigger slab avalanches that could be large and have severe consequences. Carefully evaluate terrain and the snowpack prior to travelling on steep avalanche slopes.
At the mid and upper elevations large slab avalanches could be triggered by skiers or riders on steep avalanche prone slopes. These slabs could step down to buried weak layers of faceted snow and have depths to 4 feet.. At the lower elevations pockets of wind slab lie upon depth hoar and could be human triggered with depths to eighteen inches.
Tomorrow is to be cold again. Sub zero temperatures are expected in the morning at all elevations with the coldest temperatures being in the valleys. Winds are to be calmer and temperatures are expected to rise to the upper teens at all elevations in the afternoon. The general avalanche hazard will be Moderate tomorrow. Although the sensitivity and therefore the likelihood of triggering slab avalanches continues to decrease, failure could still occur from the presence of a single skier or rider, especially in very steep terrain where the old weaknesses exist.
