Reactive wind slabs may persist on isolated steep, exposed slopes.
Assess your local conditions, as new snow accumulates, slabs may become more widespread.
Strong, variable winds over the weekend produced widespread wind slabs, which may remain reactive in steep, exposed terrain.
Continued snowfall in some areas and elevated winds could create fresh slabs throughout the day.
Several persistent weak layers of surface hoar, facets, or crusts may be buried in the top meter of the snowpack. Wind slabs could step down to these layers, causing larger-than-expected avalanches.
On Sunday, numerous wind slab avalanches (up to size 2) occurred in exposed terrain across various aspects, along with a few cornice failures.
The current cooler temperatures should decrease the reactivity of wind slabs formed over the weekend. However, new snow in areas and wind could form fresh slabs at the surface.
Roughly 5 to 15 cm of recent snow has been affected by strong, variable winds in exposed terrain. A widespread crust, below 2200 m, from last weekend's rain event exists just below this snow or at the surface. At higher elevations, new snow sits atop a generally settled, well-consolidated upper snowpack.
Variable weak layers buried throughout February may persist roughly 30 to 100 cm below the surface, in northerly high elevation terrain. These layers consist of surface hoar, facets, and/or crusts.
The remaining snowpack appears to be strong and well-bonded.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 4 to 10 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Thursday
Mix of sun and clouds. 5 cm of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
