Investigate the bond of recent snow and older surfaces, especially where the snow has been stiffened by wind - in some areas it sits on a crust, and other areas possibly surface hoar.
You could find up to 20 cm snow from the recent storm at upper elevations. In some places it sits over a rain crust, and in other areas possibly surface hoar. Human triggering is more likely in areas where the snow had been exposed to wind. Loose dry sluffs may run fast from your boards or sleds in steep sheltered terrain.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Some clearing expected, light north east wind, low of -9
SATURDAY: Sunny breaks, light southwest ridge top wind, alpine high of -6
SUNDAY: Chance of flurries, 5-10cm, ridge top winds may increase to the light to moderate range from the south west, -4, freezing level 1000m
MONDAY: Partly cloudy, trace snow amounts, light north west wind, high of -6
No new natural avalanches have been reported. On Dec 9th there were some reports of ski cutting some size 1 storm slabs over the freezing rain crust in open treeline and alpine elevations.
Wednesday's storm deposited 8-20 cm of snow. At low to mid elevations early in the storm, light rain is reported to have destroyed some surface hoar and in most places left a freezing rain crust in its place before things cooled and covered it with the remaining storm snow.
There is less known about upper elevations where the new snow may have been more wind affected and sit on a variety of surfaces such as crusts, surface hoar and old wind polished snow. If you have found buried surface hoar from December 8th, we would love to hear about it in the Mountain Information Network.
The early November crust is sitting about 10-30 cm up from the ground. There is a late November crust in the midpack in some places as well. Uncertainty with these crusts exist due to limited observations, but there haven't been any recent avalanches reported on these layers in this region.
Snowpack depths vary with elevation, treeline averages between 50-100 cm.
