Humans who venture onto steep avalanche prone slopes could trigger slab avalanches. These slabs could release in wind loaded areas, involving snow from the recent storm cycle or they could fail on deeper weaknesses, involving faceted snow that formed during dry periods earlier in the season. Identify and avoid steep, wind loaded terrain features and evaluate the snowpack carefully to determine where old weaknesses still pose a threat.
Surface slabs formed during the most recent storm cycle continue to be a potential hazard on steep, wind-loaded slopes at the mid and upper elevations. These slabs could be triggered by the presence of a single person and could be one to three feet deep.
In steep terrain some potential may remain for persistent slabs to be triggered by humans on buried layers of faceted snow. These slabs could possibly be triggered by a single person who hits a particularly weak spot on a slope, by a heavier trigger such as a snowmachine or following the initiation of a wind slab. These large to very large slab avalanches could be 3 to 5 feet deep at the mid and upper elevations or one to three feet deep at the lower elevations.
Tonight will be mostly dry, calm with periods of clear skies. Temperatures will be below zero. Skies will be mostly clear in the morning and partly cloudy in the afternoon. Easterly winds will back to the northeast and then towards the west.Slab avalanches could be human triggered on steep slopes. Large, persistent slab avalanches that are 3 to 5 feet deep continue to be a threat especially in areas where the snowpack is shallower and has poor structure. Surface slabs up to 3 feet deep could also be triggered by humans in very steep avalanche starting zones. Identify and avoid steep, wind loaded terrain features and evaluate the snowpack carefully to determine where old weaknesses still pose a threat. The general avalanche hazard is expected to be moderate in the Teton and Greys River/Southwest Trails areas and considerable above an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Togwotee Pass area.
