The new snow is a welcome reset and great skiing exists in sheltered areas! Areas with the most new snow and wind will have a slightly increased hazard, and we still have some uncertainty around the buried persistent layers in the snowpack.
Moderate to strong SW winds and some new snow have created fresh winds slabs on lee aspects in upper treeline and alpine areas. These are possible to trigger in steep terrain. The high alpine or areas with the most new snow may have touchier slabs.
Buried crust/facet layers exist in the upper snowpack on steep solar aspects and have resulted in a few large avalanches over the past week. These persistent layers can be tricky to assess so use caution on slopes where they are present.
Winds will diminish Saturday night and stay light to moderate from the SW through Sunday before increasing back into the moderate to strong range Sunday night. A mostly cloudy day with a few cm's of new snow is expected for Sunday with treeline temperatures in the -5 to -3 C range. Freezing levels will rise to about 1800 m by Sunday afternoon.
5-15 cm of new snow over a buried sun crust on steep solar aspects. New wind slabs/cornices forming in the alpine with moderate to strong SW winds. Feb 16 sun crust down 30-40 cm on steep solar aspects. Jan 30 sun crust or facet interface down 50-80 cm. The lower snow pack is generally well settled with typical weak facets found in shallow areas.
Wind slabs in the alpine up to size 2 have occurred in the past couple days. Over the past ten days some cornice failures have occurred and a couple triggered deeper persistent layers. One large skier triggered persistent slab avalanche occurred on an E aspect on Vermillion Peak on Tuesday which highlights the uncertainty with the buried crusts.
