The weather over the last week has been a roller coaster with a mix bag of conditions. The heavy rain event over Thanksgiving that produced over 2" of rainfall and freezing levels around 10,000 feet was followed by colder temps and light snowfall. Last weeks rain event produced numerous loose wet avalanches that gouged the existing snow cover in higher elevation terrain and ran down into mid-elevations. Recent colder temps helped eliminate the potential for loose wet avalanches but also formed a stout rain crust varying from 2 to 8 inches thick depending on elevation and location. This rain crust is a perfect sliding surface for newly formed wind slabs that developed from last nights snowfall accompanied by moderate winds and gust exceeding 25 mph in many higher elevation locations. Wind slabs are more sensitive to human triggering in steeper terrain and shortly after formation and will be found on the leeward side of ridgelines and gully features that benefit from WSW wind flow.  Pay attention to changing slab depths and distribution of wind slabs as you travel up through mid-elevation terrain into higher elevations.  Evaluate the sensitivity and depth of wind slabs on small test slopes before committing to steeper, bigger terrain. Triggering even a small wind slab and taking a ride could give way to a bad outcome due to our low snow cover and numerous natural hazards.

Our snowpack observations are limited so if your out and about in the mountains, send us your observations. A picture is worth a thousand words so any information can help us improve our product.