Northwest Coastal

Good

Friday: Trace amounts of snow / light to moderate southwest winds / Freezing level at 700m Saturday: Trace amounts of snow / moderate to strong easterly winds / Freezing level at 600m Sunday: Trace amounts of snow / light southerly winds / freezing level at 600m

A size 1 skier-triggered wind slab was observed on a northeast alpine feature on Wednesday.

Light amounts of recent snowfall now sit on top of a strong melt freeze crust that exists below 1000m on all aspects and wind-pressed powder on shaded alpine features. Variable winds have redistributed surface snow into isolated pockets of wind slab on a variety of aspects in the alpine, although the reactivity of these windslabs has been most recently described as stubborn. The aforementioned new snow may overly buried a surface hoar layer (crystal size reported to be 1-4 mm) at treeline and below. This surface hoar layer seems most prevalent in protected inland areas. Deeper within the snowpack, a facet layer buried around Jan 20th is the greatest concern although triggering seems unlikely. This layer lies approximately 110-140 cm below the surface and still exhibits hard, sudden planar results in isolated snowpack tests.