Hard wind slabs resting on weak facets or a crust could produce destructive avalanches with little to no warning. Avoid steep, wind-loaded slopes.
Recent northeast winds have formed wind slabs on leeward and cross-loaded slopes. These hard slabs may sit atop a crust with faceted snow, allowing them to propagate farther than usual and release with few, if any, warning signs.
A size 2 wind slab was remotely triggered by a skier on a west-facing alpine slope. The remote trigger suggests that recently formed wind slabs may be sitting atop a weak layer, likely a crust with facets, in some areas.
While natural avalanche activity has decreased since early in the week as winds have eased and less loose snow is available for transport, human-triggered avalanches remain likely in recently wind-loaded terrain.
Snow surfaces have been heavily wind-affected in the alpine and in exposed terrain at treeline and below. Windward slopes are scoured down to old crusts or sastrugi, while leeward slopes have been heavily loaded, forming firm wind slabs that may be sitting atop a crust with weak faceted snow or surface hoar.
In isolated, wind-sheltered terrain, 20 to 40 cm of low-density snow overlies a surface hoar layer, primarily at treeline and below.
A January crust with associated facets is buried roughly 60 to 120 cm below the surface. Below, the remainder of the snowpack is generally well settled and well bonded.
Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -11 °C.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 2 cm of snow. 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Saturday
Mix of sun and clouds. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 5 cm of snow. 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -14 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
