Skiers and riders have the potential to trigger recently formed wind slabs as well as larger avalanches involving older crusts and weak snow. Conditions will be less sensitive today which requires a more thoughtful analysis of terrain and the snowpack as signs of instability will be less obvious. Avoid very steep terrain, particularly around cliff areas and places near high elevation ridges that are prone to wind loading.
Soft slabs formed by recent snow and winds that varied from the south to west lie upon a variety of snow surfaces. These slabs could be human triggered today in steep avalanche terrain to depths of one foot.
A chance exists to trigger large to very large avalanches involving older layers within the snowpack. Failure could occur on a rain crust buried on Christmas, or possibly on older crusts and faceted snow. Larger triggers such as a cornice fall, moving wind slab, or multiple people on a slope may be necessary to cause failure of these deeper layers, particularly if a particularly shallow and weak spot on a slope is impacted. If initiated, avalanches involving these layers could be large and dangerous hard slabs with depths ranging anywhere from 2 to 10 feet.
(1/1/2026)
Hard slab remotely triggered by snowcat after terrain hit by large explosives in closed terrain at JHMR.
The 10-12 inches of snow that fell during the most recent wave of moisture lies upon firm surfaces in terrain impacted by recent temperature inversions and on near surface facets in colder shaded terrain above 8000'. That moisture fell with fairly warm temperatures and moderate winds and was fairly unreactive yesterday in the backcountry. The rain crust that was buried on Christmas is most evident between elevations of 8500' and 9500'. This interface has been gaining strength but is still a layer of concern as supported by recent observations. The deeper layers involving the stout December 10th crust and possibly deeper facets have become very unlikely to be reactive, however the potential size of avalanche that they could produce warrants continued respect.
