Crazy wind speeds and warming temperatures will influence the avalanche hazard for the next while. Watch both wind and temps closely during the days to come. Fortunately our snowpack's deeper layers can handle a bit of stress for now, but fresh wind slabs may not tolerate the warmth so well.
Sustained winds continue to build slabs at all elevations. Obviously less pronounced/consequential below treeline, but they are still there.
Thin areas are locations where it is more likely to trigger this weakness.
Nothing significant today, but there were a couple of fresh windslabs popping out in steep lee terrain. Nothing major, just some small chunks, but enough to raise a flag if loading continues.
Lots and lots of wind transport today. West was the prominent direction, but it did swing around to include most directions, except east. Expect widespread wind slabs at all elevations & aspects below 2250m. In the alpine, heavy scouring has left us with easy to find wind slabs on all easterly aspects. Deeper withing the snowpack the watched layers remain unchanged and don't appear to have become more reactive with the redistributed load. There was some isolated and predictable cracking within small pockets of fresh windslab today. Watch immediate lee areas and don't be surprised if a small slab fails.
Wind and rising temperatures continue to be the story. Temperatures will rise from -4 to -1 tomorrow. Those are 2200m temperatures, so expect things to be warmer down low. There will also be some flurries tomorrow. And wind? Sustained 60km/hr winds at ridge top. Hold on to your hat out there.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
