It remains a bit of a tenuous situation with the snowpack. We're now eight days past the Thanksgiving massacre and still we cannot let our guard down. Many areas have avalanched (we keep getting more reports of what ran naturally during the cycle) but many have not. Some have run, reloaded, and have run again (confirmed only in upper LCC with control work at Alta) - we call these repeaters.

Higher end numbers of precipitation today and tomorrow, however, will add additional stress to this conditionally unstable snow structure and I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more avalanches into this layering by the afternoon.

I continue to avoid being on or beneath the suspect terrain of steep northwest to east facing slopes at the mid and upper elevations.

Forecaster Greg Gagne's observation yesterday points out the professional's approach to heading into the backcountry. Before heading out, he compiled his questions about the snowpack and targeted his terrain, observations and snowpits to address these questions. I'll link to it here.

While it appears that wind, sun, and warmth has jettisoned, if not degraded, the previous weak snow surfaces, this morning's graupel may instead act as a weak layer that sits on a variety of hard sun and wind crusts. Today, target your inquiry to see how sensitive the storm snow is as it slowly adds up in the mountains. Test slopes and quick hand pits often provide some clue to the situation. Shooting cracks also provide evidence. If we see the higher end of snow totals, it should be possible to trigger new storm snow avalanches on a variety of aspects.