Strong winds and new snow will elevate the avalanche hazard as the day progresses.
Melt-freeze crusts and old hard wind slabs may still make for challenging skiing and riding.
Wind slabs may develop through Thursday with strong winds and new snow. Wind slabs will bury a new layer of Surface Hoar in protected areas, old hard wind slabs in exposed terrain features in the Alpine and a melt-freeze crust BTL and solar aspects.
~10cm of new snow, moderate to strong winds, and mild temperatures are forecasted for Thursday. Continued light snow on Friday, then we should start to see more snow accumulating over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday are both forecasted to get 15cms of new snow as a mild low-pressure system comes from the NW.
Wind slabs will develop Thursday morning with Strong SW winds and ~10cm of new snow. The new snow and strong winds will bury a new layer of SH in sheltered terrain, old hard wind slabs in the Alpine, and crusts on all aspects BTL and solar slopes into the Alpine. The Jan 29 SH layer, buried 50-80cm, seems to be rounding.
No new avalanches have been observed in the highway corridor, or reported from the Backcountry.
