It is generally a good travel habit to minimize exposure to slopes with cornices overhead and stay well back of them when travelling on ridges. And it's an especially good idea on days like Saturday, when cornices are big and solar radiation is strong.
Cornices may weaken with prolonged exposure to direct sun. Minimize exposure to overhead hazard when solar radiation is strong. A few recent cornice falls have triggered wind slabs on the slopes below.
Friday night: Clear, light wind, alpine temperature -8.
Saturday: Sunny, light to moderate wind, alpine high -8.
Sunday: Flurries, up to 5 cm, light wind, alpine high -9.
Monday: Flurries, up to 5 cm, light wind, alpine high -11.
No new reports in the last couple of days. Earlier in the week, reports from the northern part of the region included a natural wind slab avalanche size 1.5 at treeline and a few cornice falls up to size 2. Some of the cornice falls triggered wind slab avalanches up to size 2 in the slopes below. None of these large loads triggered deep persistent layers.
Generally hard surface conditions are found throughout the region. Upper elevations are extensively wind affected and a surface crust exists below 1600 m. In the south, the underlying snowpack is well consolidated.
In the north, remnants of a melt-freeze crust from early December may be found 100 to 200 cm deep. Recent reports and snow profiles suggest that this layer is decomposing and/or bonding to surrounding snow and trending dormant... for now at least.
