Blues

With mild temperatures down from hot, avalanche danger has decreased.  It is still a mid-winter, non-uniform, layered snowpack.  Watch for unstable snow on isolated terrain features.  

This forecast is sponsored by Robert Brooks Painting in La Grande.  

Yesterday, despite full-bore sunshine, winds up to the high teens and 20's kept surfaces cooler and limited wet loose activity, with not even small avalanches being reported.  Today, with minimal changes beyond a cooling trend, stability has improved further.  

Observations:  Thank you to two advanced members of the public who submitted photos.  One from the Western /Southern Wallowas at 8000' N found a very widely propagating avalanche involving a 1' crown of new snow that in places stepped down 2.5-3.5' to older weak layers (potentially January facets).   Another from the N Wallowas saw many crowns in the Hurricane drainage, very near one I saw on Sawtooth.  The Hurricane/Sawtooth ones were all in cliffy/unsupported terrain features.  

All of these occurred earlier in the week and likely during Sunday/Monday's rain on snow event.  

What to do:  A wide mix of surface conditions and riding qualities exists in all zones, from quality corn to a sometimes unsupportable crust on southerlies.  Or just enough/4-6" of cold dry snow on northerlies above the 2/23 Sunday Soaker crust.  If you choose to ride steeper or complex terrain, evaluate each slope individually for instabilities such as pockets of windslab or loose snow.  Even a small avalanche can have deadly results in consequential terrain.  

Add value to your forecast.  These can be as short as you'd like, anonymous, or from your phone.  If you like to keep your stash secret, share aspect and elevation and put your pin elsewhere within the zone.  Submit an observation here.