Skies are cloudy, southwesterly ridge top winds continue to blow in the 20-25 mph range with gusts to 40, and 10,000' temps are in the mid 20's. Today we'll see cloudy skies and and a chance for scattered showers. SW winds will continue to blow in the moderate to strong range, and high temps will be right around freezing. Saturday's storm is starting to look better for us with snow falling through the day and into the night. 5"-8" are possible.

I was out and about with Dustin Randall of ROAM Industry on Wednesday. It was a beautiful spring-like day in the mountains with associated spring-like conditions. Last week's incredible 50" of snow has settled out considerably but trail breaking is still difficult through up to 2' of snow. The snow got very moist yesterday and S facing slopes are crusted over. Wind exposed slopes have sustained some damage, both from SW and NW winds, but soft snow can still be found in protected areas. Stability tests show that the snowpack has largely adjusted to the snow load. Remaining areas of concern include wind drifted slopes, and steep, shady, northerly aspects where buried persistent weak layers of loose, sugary, faceted snow still exist.

Wind drifts have formed on the leeward sides of terrain features, in between wind scoured zones. Avoid steep, wind drifted slopes that have a smooth, rounded appearance to them.