The big question is how will the old buried weak sugar snow near the ground react to the anticipated storm? Good things about the current snowpack are that the snow above the weak sugar snow is VERY strong. It may be strong enough to hold 12" of new snow without it breaking into the old snow. The other thing is that I have seen at least one location where the old weak sugar snow is now becoming damp near the base. This is good news as it makes the old sugar more cohesive. The other good thing is that there are lots of slopes that don't have old weak snow near the ground. The bad thing is that I've had recent snowpit tests fail and propagate easily, breaking into the old weak sugar snow. The bottom line is that you can't ever trust faceted sugar snow that is buried in the snowpack. We'll have to wait until the storm is over and see how that old weak snow reacted to the new snow and wind.

The wind will be forming fresh drifts all over the place. The biggest drifts will be on the more east facing slopes but use caution and watch for fresh drifts on all aspects.