Winds on Pre-Laurel Peak: WSW 5-10 Temp 15° Percent of Normal: 100%

Dry and unseasonably warm temperatures carry us through the weekend. We should see a few clouds developing later today, with light westerly winds and high temps in the upper 30's. Sunday looks sunny and slightly warmer. Quiet weather ends Sunday night as moisture from the latest atmospheric river (AR) moves into the region. Although widespread heavy snow is forecasted for much of region, these AR events have been hit or miss for us and the stars need to align for us to be in the bullseye. This hasn't happened as of yet, but we should some snow Mon-Tues. Let's hope the models show a little more focus on our mountains over the next couple of days.

Tim Mathews and Nate Ament reported some surprisingly good, sleeper conditions out there yesterday. It seems like a passing front on Thursday put down a nice layer of graupel that barely registered on the storm board. Winds have also been calm for the past couple of days so it looks like there will be some good turns to be had out there this weekend. Look for sheltered, lower angle slopes to take advantage of these conditions. We're also getting reports of people pushing it into steep, consequential terrain without incident. The likelihood of triggering a deep avalanche down into weak, faceted snow has decreased significantly, but you can keep the odds in your favor by avoiding areas of steep, rocky, radical terrain, or slopes with complex terrain features. Thinner snowpack areas remain suspect where your weight can much more easily affect the weak layer. Pull out your shovel, or simply probe around. I'd personally like to see close to 200 cms of snow before I'd feel good about skiing something steep.

Quality low angle turns in a graupel layer on top of a few inches of dry snow. Tim Mathews photo.