White Pass has performed its typical transformation into a landscape of heavily wind affected surfaces and large, hard wind slabs. These slabs may have grown stubborn to trigger but they carry big consequences. Select routes that minimize your exposure to these hazards.
40-60 cm of storm snow and strong, shifting winds have created widespread wind slabs on all aspects and elevations. These are becoming quite stubborn to trigger but may still react to the weight of a person or machine on steeper slopes. Large hard wind slabs in the alpine are a primary concern.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing up to 5 cm of new snow. Light southwest winds.
SUNDAY: Cloudy with lingering isolated flurries and about 5 cm of new snow, including overnight amounts. Light north winds. Alpine high temperatures around -10
MONDAY: Cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -13.
TUESDAY: Cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light northeast winds. Alpine high temperatures around -17.
A widespread natural avalanche cycle occurred during the height of last week's storm with naturally triggered storm slabs reported up to size 3.
Explosives control on Thursday in the pass south of the US-Canada border produced consistent slab releases to size 2. This gives some indication of hazards that may still exist on the Canadian side.
About 50 cm of recent snow and strong southwest, shifting to northerly winds have created widespread, potentially still reactive wind slabs on a variety of aspects. The same conditions also created fragile new cornice growth.
Around Log Cabin, around 70 cm of snow may overlie a layer of surface hoar. This layer was the culprit of avalanche activity during the first week of January but has not been reported elsewhere in the region.
A buried crust from early December can be found 50-130 cm below the surface, but most reports suggest the snow is well-bonded to it.
The lower snowpack is strong around White Pass, but there is potential for a generally thinner and weaker snowpack structure to exist in inland areas, such as the Wheaton Valley and even more so in the south Klondike.
