Moderate hazard doesn't mean no hazard. Asses smaller slopes before committing to larger terrain. Avoid shallow rocky slopes and terrain where a small wind slab might have a large consequence.
Be on the lookout for wind-loading in lee north and east slopes from southwest winds. Older buried windslabs and cross-loaded features on all aspects are also suspect.
Depending on elevation and aspect, 40-150 cm of snow currently sits above buried weak layers from early December. Buried surface hoar and sugary facets around the crust mean persistent slabs remain on our radar and may be triggered with large triggers or in a shallow snowpack.
Tuesday night: Mainly cloudy, alpine low temperatures near -9C, freezing levels valley bottom & ridgetop winds moderate southwest.
Wednesday: Mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries, trace-5cm new snow, alpine high temperatures -6C, freezing levels valley bottom & ridgetop winds moderate to strong southwest.
Thursday: Mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries, trace-5cm new snow, alpine high temperatures -6C, freezing levels valley bottom & ridgetop winds light southwest.
Friday: Snow flurries, 5-10 cm new snow, alpine high temperatures -3C, freezing levels 1300m & ridgetop winds moderate gusting strong southwest.
No new avalanches have been reported, except for sluffing of loose dry snow building mass to size 1 from steep wind sheltered terrain. In previous days, small wind slab avalanches were triggered with explosives, though they appeared to be more stubborn and isolated.
Last week there was a significant avalanche cycle from heavy snow and strong winds. This cycle produced a few very large avalanches, including some that stepped down to deeper crusts and one that stepped down to the November crust in a nearby forecast region.
Please consider sharing your observations on the Mountain Information Network. Thank you to those that have already submitted this winter!
Recent winds have re-worked snowpacks in exposed ridgecrests and alpine areas leading to scouring, cross-loading and widespread wind slabs in lee features. Wind direction has been variable, but largely from the southwest loading north and east aspects.
Below 1800m, 15-25 cm of snow sits atop a buried melt-freeze crust. Buried deeper are few weak layers of interest. Buried 40-90 cm is a layer of surface hoar crystals and a crust from early December with facetted crystals. These layers are showing signs of slowly gaining strength, but remains layers of concern. This MIN from the 27th near Mongolia Bowl reports a notable weak layer down 40cm.
The base of the snowpack consists of a hard melt-freeze crust / sugary facets from early-November. This potential avalanche problem remains on our radar.
