New snow and moderate wind created fresh storm slabs at higher elevations. Shooting cracks and whumphing may indicate the storm slabs have stiffened, bumping the danger level up to Considerable.
Watch out for early-season/low snowpack hazards! The poor visibility and new snow increase the likelihood of striking unseen objects just below the snow surface.
The Nov 17 surface hoar is down 50-80cm and most prevalent around tree line. The surface hoar continues to give 'sudden' results in snowpack tests.
10cm of dry, low-density snow is forecasted to land on top of a faceted surface. Expect fast sluffing in steep, confined terrain, potentially digging deeper into the facets and accumulating enough mass to bury a person.
Limited avalanche observations have been reported. Expect sluffing in steep unsupported terrain features and soft storm slabs in exposed start zones in the Alpine and at Treeline.
Whumpfing and remote-triggering continue on small, unsupported pillows at treeline and below on the Nov 17 persistent weak layer, both in GNP and our nearest neighbors.
10-20cm of new low-density snow overlies more low-density facetted snow and surface hoar on specific terrain features. The Nov 17th Surface Hoar is now buried 50-70cm below the surface. Thin, shallow early-season snowpack conditions still exist; we have roughly half the snowpack we did at this time last Winter!
10-20cm of new snow is expected by Wednesday morning! Flurries are forecasted to continue through Wednesday with up to 5cm more by end of the day. Temperatures should remain cool, in the minus 10C range, and winds will be generally light gusting to moderate from the West. Flurries and cool temperatures are forecasted to continue throughout the week.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
