Lots of wind slabs in the alpine and at tree line. The best snow can be found in sheltered areas in the trees.
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.
Still no snow on the horizon but it is still important to dream....
Wednesday: Mix of sun and cloud. No snow. High of -10c. Moderate NW winds
Thursday: Sunny with cloudy periods. No snow. High of -4c and a Low of -10c. Moderate West winds.
No avalanches were observed today.
Extensive wind slabs, hard wind slabs, buried wind slabs, and sastrugi(wavy ridges of snow formed by the wind) dominate the alpine and open areas of tree line. 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.
The forecasters dug a profile at 2100m today just SE of Hero's Knob to investigate the December rain crust. It was found to be breaking down and did not produce any test results on it. For the time being, this layer is not on our radar but will surely show up again later on in the season.
