Buried surface hoar layers are adjusting to the significant storm totals.
Minimize your exposure to convex rolls and large open slopes, especially at treeline elevations.
Two layers of surface hoar have produced recent avalanche activity. The additional load of recent storm snow will stress these layers and increase reactivity.
Storm slabs are expected to remain reactive to human triggers, especially in coastal areas where totals reached 60 cm.
We expect widespread natural activity to have occurred on Friday as the wind and snow continued. On Thursday numerous size 2 wind slabs were reported, naturally and human triggered.
Several slab avalanches up to size 2 have been reported this week on the buried surface hoar layers, primarily on north facing slopes around treeline. These reports include natural and remote human triggers.
Up to 65 cm of recent storm snow has been redistributed by strong winds to deeper deposits on north and east facing slopes. Low elevations received mostly rain, and likely hold a surface crust.
Two buried layers of surface hoar are widespread in the mid snowpack, buried 45-80 cm, and 90-130 cm deep.
The remaining mid and lower snowpack contains several crusts from early in the season that are generally well-bonded to the surrounding snowpack. Snow depths are highly variable depending on elevation, and decrease rapidly below treeline.
Friday Night
Cloudy with possible flurries, westerly winds 40-50 km/h. Freezing level 500 m.
Saturday
Cloudy with 1-3 cm of snow, southerly winds increase over the day, from 40 to 60 km/h. Freezing levels around 700 m, treeline temperature -5 °C.
Sunday
Cloudy with snow starting midday, 5-10 cm. Freezing levels between 500-1000 m, and treeline temperatures around -2 °C. Southerly winds strengthen to above 100 km/h.
Monday
Mostly cloudy with flurries. Freezing levels rise towards 1500 m, treeline temperatures approach 0°C. Southerly winds 60-100 km/h.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
