Continuous snowfall and moderate winds will keep feeding the storm slab problem. Avoid committing avalanche terrain and allow the storm slab to stabilize.
The best snow quality is found at tree line and below.
Recent storm snow, moderate/strong ridge-top winds, and warmer temperatures have created slabs in the upper snowpack. Watch for signs of instability such as shooting cracks and recent avalanches.
This layer has been mainly dormant for the last few weeks, but should remain as one of your concerns when entering new terrain or large open features. Watch for steep, unsupported, thin rocky areas where this layer could be activated.
Storm slabs at tree line and below were less reactive on Sunday as many happy backcountry users shredded deep pow. No new reports or observations of avalanches, but visibility was poor.
A widespread natural avalanche cycle occurred early Saturday morning with numerous avalanches size 2-3.5 throughout the highway corridor.
30-50cm of settling storm snow over the last few days and wind has formed storm slabs. Expect this slab to be deeper in wind-loaded areas.
The mid-snowpack is mainly rounded grains.
The Nov 17 deep persistent layer is near the base of the snowpack and is weak. It is mainly facetted with a decomposing crust in some locations.
Mainly cloudy for Monday with snow accumulations up to 5cm by the evening. Ridgetop winds will be SouthWest 20-50km/hr with an alpine high of -8. Freezing level will be ~1000m.
A storm front approaches Monday evening into Tuesday with 30cm of snow and another 10-15cm by Wednesday morning.
More snow on Friday as well!
