As the temperatures warm up, strong solar radiation has the potential to trigger the weak, sugary facets.
Sluffs in steep terrain may gather up enough mass to produce a sizeable avalanche, so keep your wits about you as you enjoy the long-awaited warmth!
20-50cms of snow overlays a buried persistent weak layer. This weak layer consists of surface hoar, facets and/or a suncrust. It will be most reactive where there is a settled, cohesive slab on top of a crust.
New snow sits on weak sugary crystals from the prolonged dry/cold spell. Expect this new snow to be sluffing naturally from cliffs and steep areas, especially with strong solar input. It will likely also be reactive to rider triggering, especially in steep terrain. Manage your sluff accordingly!
Frequent Flyer in Connaught Creek ran Monday afternoon, size 2, across the skin track, burying ~15-20m of the uptrack up to 50cm deep. Trigger was likely strong solar radiation at ~1pm.
A field team up in the Hermit zone had significant whumphing on solar aspects, but there wasn't enough of a cohesive slab on top to cause an avalanche.
Neighbouring operations, particularly to the west, are still reporting rider & remote triggered avalanches on the Jan 30th layer.
5-10cm of new snow sits on a faceted upper snowpack. Old wind affected areas under this new snow have softened/rotted out due to the cold temps.
A weak layer of surface hoar, facets and/or suncrust (Jan 30th) is 20-50cm down. This layer failed easily in snowpack tests at 1700m on the Smart paths. Watch out when this layer gets overloaded!
The Jan 7th layer is down 50-80 and is decomposed surface hoar or a thin crust on South and West aspects. This layer has been inactive recently.
Light winds and slowly rising freezing levels the next couple of days.
Tonight Cloudy with clear periods. Alpine low -14°C. Ridge winds N 10km/hr
Tues A mix of sun/cloud. Alp high -10°C. Light S wind.
Wed A mix of sun/cloud. Alp high -7°C. Light SW wind. Freezing level (FZL) rising to 1100m.
Thurs Cloudy with isolated flurries. Alp high -6°C. Light W wind. FZL 1200m.
