Weak faceted snow from storms in early and mid November are present on aspects facing west, through north, and then southeast at the mid and upper elevations. Over this past week, the Ogden mountains received 6-8" or snowfall with nearly an inch of water. Over the past 12-18 hours, we quickly added around another 8-10" of snow, nearly an inch of water, and threw in some strong winds at the mid and upper elevations. This is enough of a load to make the weak faceted snow reactive.

At the upper elevations, you are very likely to trigger an avalanche in terrain steeper than 30° that has the persistent weak layer of faceted snow buried underneath the storm snow. These avalanches can be triggered remotely and from below.

Several observations from Thursday indicated sensitive storm snow during periods of higher precipitation intensity (PI), especially later in the day. You may find sensitive storm slabs in areas that received the most snow (approaching a foot) or in areas that also had some wind-drifting. Triggering an avalanche that initially fails in storm or wind-driven snow will likely break down more deeply into the weak faceted snow down 12-18".