West Slopes Central

It's likely that you could trigger a large slab avalanche in the new snow that falls Tuesday night and Wednesday. We suspect the most reactive layers will be in wind-loaded areas, but it may be hard to detect where wind-loaded slopes are- and up high, there's just a lot of incoming snow. This is a good day to steer around all steep terrain and stick to lower-angle, sheltered areas.

By the end of the day, upper elevations in some areas of the zone could have around 18 inches of new snow. Expect greater danger in areas with more snow. Near the bottom of the mid elevation band, and possibly the top of the lower elevation band, there may be just enough snow for you to trigger a small avalanche.

Even if you trigger smaller avalanches in the new layer, they could step down to a persistent layer on large, steep slopes and result in a very large, unsurvivable avalanche. 

This is a day to travel cautiously and stick to conservative terrain. Although we have limited information from this zone, nearby zones have had several large and very large recent avalanches failing on persistent layers, and we suspect similar activity in this zone. New snow may further stress buried weak layers. Natural avalanches are possible. Consider that a smaller storm slab could step down into a much larger and more dangerous persistent slab avalanche.

 Classic warning signs like collapsing or cracking remain important, though deeper instabilities may give few clues. Favor lower-angle, less wind-loaded terrain on Wednesday. 

Lower elevations received mostly rain during this storm- over an inch of it. Steep slopes that have a thick, wet layer of snow that you're sinking more than a few inches deep in could produce rollerballs or wet avalanches. There could also be natural avalanches in this layer of soft, wet snow. If you see natural avalanches, or you're sinking past your ankles in wet snow, stick to lower angle terrain and steer clear of the bottom of steep paths that an avalanche might run down to.