Watch for soft slabs along ridge crest and lee slope terrain.
Weather Forecast
Alpine high of -12C along with light precipitation and moderate W'ly winds for today. Tuesday through Thursday is forecast to bring light snowfall each day along with W'ly through S'ly winds in the moderate gusting to strong range.
Snowpack Summary
~25cm of low density snow from the last 48hrs with mod S winds forming soft slabs along lee of ridges. Storm snow landing on a facetted old snow surface making for a weak bond. Avoid exposure to the many large cornices. Windslab buried under recent storm snow. Solar aspects have a crust buried ~50cm that requires caution. PWL now buried 150-200cm.
Avalanche Summary
15 avalanches, mostly in the size 2-2.5 range in the highway corridor yesterday, all initiating in the storm snow and most running to half fan on the run outs. No new avalanche reports from the backcountry.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.