Mt. Bosworth avalanche closure zone is CLOSED on Thursday, January 16th.
High elevation winds have been strong to extreme for the last week, so be on the lookout for windslabs if venturing into high, windy spots.
It's been weeks since a deep slab has occurred, but a weak snowpack persists in shallow areas - ski the thick, avoid the thin.
New thin wind slabs may form with flurries on Thursday and old wind slabs may linger in high alpine features from last week's snowfall and W-SW wind. If triggered, they may run further than expected if they pick up facetted snow in steep gullied terrain.
The snowpack is generally deeper and, thus, stronger in the Little Yoho subregion than in most of the BYK forecast region. However, the problem may remain in thin snowpack areas, such as windward and exposed terrain, where weak basal facets are at the base of the snowpack.
One size 1.5 windslab was reported today, 30-50 cm deep on Bow Peak (Hwy 93 N), SE aspect in the alpine. It looks like it occurred within the past 48 hrs and was downslope from the ridge crest, perhaps a result of the strong winds loading lower on the lee slope. Otherwise, no new avalanches were reported in the past 2 days.
Last week's 20 cm of snow has been blown into slabs in high alpine areas. This recent snow sits on a layer of facets and surface hoar in some locations, although we haven't seen many avalanches sliding on this layer yet. The mid-pack is generally strong; however, a weak facet layer can be found near the ground in shallow snowpack areas. At treeline, average snowpack depth ranges from 120 to 150 cm.
Thursday, we expect strong to extreme SW winds accompanied by up to 5 cm new snow.
On Friday, we will see cooling temperatures and easing winds as arctic air moves in for the weekend.
