Two avalanche problems confront skiers and riders today. Wind slabs that could be soft to hard have been formed by winds that have varied greatly in direction. Also, the potential persists to trigger older hard slabs to greater depths.
Winds that initially blew from the southwest and veered all the way to the southeast have moved recently fallen snow into surface slabs on a variety of aspects.
At the upper elevations, faceted snow lies upon wind pack and sun crusts formed during the early December dry period. There, skiers and riders might be able to trigger persistent slabs up to an additional two feet. On north facing slopes above 9,000 feet, some potential may persist for hard slabs failing to early season weak layers near the ground.
( Discussion is generated from the previous day's afternoon forecast. )Expect decreasing cloud cover during the day on Friday. Light, scattered mountain snow showers could linger into the morning hours. Overnight lows in the mountains will be in the low single digits before rising to around 10 degrees during the day. Northeasterly ridgetop winds will decrease to 5 to 15 miles per hour by Friday morning.The general avalanche hazard is expected to be CONSIDERABLE above 9,000 feet and MODERATE below 9,000 feet. Two avalanche problems will confront skiers and riders on Friday. First, newly created soft slabs are likely to be triggered in steep, wind-loaded avalanche starting zones. These slabs will be less likely to release as elevation decreases and wind becomes less of a factor. Second, persistent slabs could be directly triggered by skiers and riders or step down from the release of the new surface slabs.
