Even though the hazard is moderate, hard wind slabs can be difficult to evaluate, especially in larger alpine features. Your best skiing will be found in sheltered areas.
The buried wind slab will be hard to trigger but if you are able to get it to go from a thin area, it could produce a large avalanche. Thin wind slabs are also being found along ridgelines. At treeline these slabs may step down to the December crust.
This problem primarily exists below 2200m. Dig and evaluate.
No snow on the horizon but it is still important to dream....
Tuesday: Cloudy with sunny periods and a high of -7c in the alpine. Expect winds to be Westerly at 45km/hr. An alpine inversion is expected which means that it will colder in the valley bottom and warmer up high.
Wednesday: Cloudy with sunny periods with temperatures from -13c to -8c.
Forecasters were in the Aster Lake area today and did not see any new avalanche activity.
A few cm's of snow today from convective flurries. Widespread wind effect and wind slabs in the alpine and open areas at treeline. These hard wind slabs can be tricky to evaluate because they have the potential to propagate but gives someone the impression underfoot that the base is solid. Take the time to dig and evaluate before committing to larger slopes. In sheltered areas you can find up to 15cm of lower density snow that overlies previous surfaces, which gives acceptable skiing. The Dec crust layer is down 100 to 140cm is faceting and produces moderate to hard shears. Forecasters continue to keep a close eye on this persistent weak layer, despite a long spell of minimal activity associated with it. If/when it re-awakens, large avalanches are possible.
