"CONTINUED HIGH AVALANCHE HAZARD"
Avoid all avalanche terrain. Up to 60cm of storm snow has fallen. Strong to extreme winds have created widespread wind slabs at treeline and above. More snow and more wind is forecast. There is also a likelyhood of triggereing deeper weaknesses in the snowpack, thus creating very large avalanches.
This wind slab problem covers two wind slab problems. 40-60cm of storm snow is being re-distributed into a surface wind slab. If this is triggered, there is a strong likelyhood to trigger a recently buried wind slab that is up to 60-80cm deep
Avalanches initiated in the surface wind slab could trigger this deeper instability. Large and destructive avalanches are possible.
Rapid loading from the recent storm along with incoming snow will lead to widespread sluffing.
On a road patrol on the Spray road revealed a widespread avlanche cycle has occured. One could see the winds continuing to blow had at treeline and above.
This last storm has given us between 40-60cm of snow in the last 3 days. An additional 10-15cm of snow is forecast. Extensive wind slabs can be found in the Alpine and lee features at treeline. These wind slabs are likely to be reactive to skier traffic. A previous wind slab from Monday can be found down about 50-80cm and was sitting on a softer layer of decomposed crystals that should be investigated for its reactivity. The November crust is now down 100+cm. Any avalanche triggered in the upper snowpack has a strong likelyhood to step down to deeper instabilities. Now is a time to avoid exposure to avalanche terrain and give time for the snowpack to settle and stabilize.
Another 10-15cm is forecast to fall by Friday mid-day alond with continued 75-100km/hr winds. The temperature in the alpine is forecast to cool off to -13.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
