Touchy wind slabs are lurking in unusual places, such as south aspects. Persistent slabs still can't be totally trusted, especially in shallow snowpack areas.
Weather Forecast
SATURDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries and trace amounts of fresh snow, light southeasterly winds, alpine temperature around -8.SUNDAY: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries possible, light becoming moderate southwesterly winds and alpine temperatures around -10.MONDAY: Mainly cloudy with light snowfall bringing another 10 cm, strong southwesterly ridgetop winds and alpine temperatures dropping to -15.
Avalanche Summary
Reports from Thursday include a recent Size 2 naturally occurring storm slab avalanche on a north aspect. Reports from Tuesday and Wednesday include a few natural and human-triggered sluffs and wind slab avalanches up to Size 2 and a Size 2.5 cornice fall, but generally no new avalanches. Expect wind slabs, cornices and loose surface snow to remain sensitive to human triggers for the forecast period.
Snowpack Summary
Surface hoar and surface facets have been buried by a light dusting of fresh snow. In exposed areas at all elevations, recent winds have resulted in scouring, hard wind slabs, and thicker reactive wind slabs in unusual places as the winds shifted from west to northeast. Moderate southeasterly winds are likely keeping winds slabs fresh in some areas, while old wind slabs are breaking down with faceting in other areas. Persistent weakness in the mid-pack are giving variable results in snowpack tests, but are generally most touchy in shallow snowpack areas. Recent snowpack tests gave moderate to hard but resistant results on two different layers of facets and/or buried surface hoar in the top metre. The lower snowpack seems to be well bonded, but features a crust/facet deep persistent weakness near the ground, which remains a concern in shallow rocky snowpack areas.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.