Enjoy the snow but be alert when transitioning into wind-affected terrain.
Avoid steep, rocky, and shallow snowpacks to lessen your chance of triggering buried weak layers.
Variable winds that have reached all elevations may have created wind slabs on all aspects as far down in elevation as below treeline.
In many areas, the wind has scoured the alpine of snow so it will be at treeline where you may encounter the most reactive wind slabs.
A weak layer of facets exists near the base of the snowpack. Large triggers such as smaller avalanches in motion or cornice failures have the potential to produce very large avalanches with wide propagation. Suspect terrain for human triggering includes steep, shallow and rocky terrain.
On Thursday, the results of a natural cornice failure were observed in the Core Lodge area. It was on a rocky northeast aspect and it did not produce an avalanche on the slope below and was thought to be about 24 hours old.
Last weekend, there were several natural and human-triggered wind slabs were observed from a variety of aspects in alpine and treeline terrain as northeasterly winds impacted the region. Check out this MIN from Pine Pass on Saturday for an example.
Another MIN report from Pine Pass on Sunday shows a very large deep persistent slab from alpine terrain that was likely triggered by a cornice failure or wind-loading. This is the first observation in several weeks of deep persistent slab activity and is an indication that this layer should be on our radar, particularly in the shallower snowpack parts in the region.
Shifting winds have redistributed any available snow into wind slabs on a variety of aspects. There is a good chance that the wind has stripped the snow away in the alpine and wind slabs could be found at treeline. In sheltered areas, soft storm snow from last week can be found and will be resting on heavily wind-affected snow. This MIN has some great photos showing this.
The middle of the snowpack is generally strong.
A weak layer of large and weak facets is found near the base of the snowpack. This layer is of greatest concern in shallow snowpack areas in the north and east of the region.
Thursday Night
Clear with increasing clouds, no accumulation, winds southeast 20 km/h, treeline temperatures around -10 °C.
Friday
Cloudy with sunny periods, trace accumulation, winds northeast 15 km/h ramping up to 45 by afternoon, treeline temperatures around -15 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy with sunny periods late in the day, trace accumulation, winds easterly 15 to 25 km/h gusting to 40, treeline temperatures -20 to -15 °C.
Sunday
Cloudy with sunny periods, trace accumulation, winds easterly 20 to 30 km/h gusting to 40, treeline temperatures around -10 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
