Central Sierra Nevada

Wind, light snow, and warmer weather will change the snow surfaces, but avalanches will remain unlikely. Talk with your partners to make plans with good safety margins. Be willing to change plans if you see different conditions than expected. 

Normal caution

Some wind, a dusting of new snow, and warmer weather may reshape the snow surface. However, it should not be enough to create any new avalanche problems. The light snowfall does have the potential to bury recently formed surface hoar, which could pose a problem when a more significant storm arrives. Soft cold snow should still exist on sheltered or high-elevation northerly slopes. The southerly and westerly slopes should be more scoured or sun crusted. East aspects are likely somewhere in between. Below the surface, the snowpack has consolidated and grown stronger. Avalanche activity remains unlikely.

Building and maintaining good backcountry travel habits remains important, even during LOW avalanche danger. Implementing "talking breaks" into your travel plan at appropriate spots like turns and viewpoints and before entering avalanche terrain can help develop better communication habits. As always, pay attention to changing conditions and any isolated signs of instability. When traveling in avalanche terrain, travel through it one at a time and regroup in safe areas.

Recent Observations:

• More snow has been falling from the trees creating more variable surfaces in tree-covered areas, especially below 7400 ft. 
• Surface hoar has been seen in many open areas sheltered from the winds at low and mid-elevations. If it gets buried, it could become a future weak layer. 
• The surface snow on northerly aspects remains soft and cold. In some areas, it is getting sugary and weaker.
• Thin sun crusts have formed on the snow surface in many areas of direct sun exposure, mainly on SE-S-SW aspects and lower elevation E aspects.
• The Dec 1 facets and Dec 8 Surface hoar layers are buried deep in the snowpack. Recent snowpit data has shown a trend of little to no reactivity on either of these weak layers, along with increasing strength.