Watch for deeper and more reactive deposits around ridges and lee features, especially as you enter open or alpine terrain.
Investigate for wind-loaded pockets, especially around ridges and open bowls.
A currently unreactive surface hoar layer is buried 30 to 70 cm. We are tracking this layer as reactivity may increase as more snow loads into a slab above.
On Saturday, explosives control work and skier traffic triggered storm slab avalanches to size 1.5, averaging 20 to 30 cm deep. A handful of natural storm slab avalanches to size 2 were observed failing in steep terrain.
10 to 30 cm fresh snow accumulated over the weekend and was redistributed by southerly winds in the alpine and open treeline, wind formed slabs in lee features. This snow covers older snow in most terrain and surface hoar in sheltered locations.
A surface hoar layer is now buried 30 to 70 cm and is most prevalent from 1700 to 2200 m (see this MIN). We're tracking this layer as the load (and resulting slab) builds above it. We may see reactivity increase when the load above reaches a critical threshold. Below 1600 m and on solar slopes a crust is at this interface.
There are no deeper layers of concern.
Sunday night
Partly cloudy with starry breaks. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Monday
Partly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h south ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Wednesday
Snow, 15-30 cm. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
