Warming, with direct sun will increase the hazard, especially on steep solar aspects, TL and below.
Sensitive cornices, wind slabs and terrible riding conditions in the Alpine.
North winds have caused reverse loading wind slabs down into the tree line. This seems to be more prominent north of Tangle Hill. It is especially a concern where a hard wind slab sits over weak faceted snow. Listen for a hollow sounding snowpack.
December's persistent weaknesses sit over different layers depending on elevation and aspect. Below 1950m, a faceting rain crust is roughly 40-60cm down. Above 1950m, a buried surface facet layer down 20-30cm is the primary concern.
Thursday
Flurries: 7 cm. Temp High -4 °C. Wind W: 20 km/h gusting to 55 km/h. FZL: 1500 m.
Friday
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Trace. Temp: Low -10 °C, High -7 °C. Wind W: 15-25 km/h.
Saturday
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Trace. Temp: Low -7 °C, High -5 °C. Wind W: 15 km/h. FZL: 1600 m
North winds have built new and hard wind slabs in all open features, ALP and open TL. The mid-pack is highly faceted with active, persistent weak layers from Dec. Interfaces within the facets found down ~30cm and ~60cm. These layers have varied sensitivity but if triggered can build quickly into large, destructive avalanches. Cornices are building.
Several large avalanches have been observed over the last 48 hours around the Churchill Range up to sz 2.5 and running to ground.
