With more than 100cm of snow over the last 5 days, and strong winds, wind slabs are widespread at upper elevations. Although the natural avalanche cycle has tapered, slopes are primed for human triggering. Conservative terrain choices are advised.
This wind slab problem covers two wind slab problems. 50-80cm of storm snow is being re-distributed into a surface wind slab. If this is triggered, there is a strong likelihood to trigger a recently buried wind slab that is up to 70-100cm deep.
Avalanches initiated in the surface wind slab will likely trigger this deeper instability. Large and destructive avalanches are possible.
No new avalanches were observed today, but visibility was limited. There is significant evidence of previous avalanche cycle up to size 3 over the last 4 days.
Another 10cm of new snow has fallen in the last 24hrs. This brings the storm snow total to between 60 and 100cm over the last 5 days. Wind slabs are widespread in the Alpine and on lee and cross-loaded features at Treeline. These wind slabs are likely to be reactive to skier traffic. The November crust is now down 100-150cm, and is showing signs of faceting. Any avalanche triggered in the upper snowpack has a strong likelihood to step down to deeper instabilities.
Sunday will be mainly cloudy with light snowfall. Total accumulations are expected to be near 5cm. Winds will start off in the strong range from the SW, and then settle down to moderate speeds near midday. Temperatures will be between -10 and -8C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
