Douglas Island saw a welcome return to light and dry snowfall this week totaling over a foot or more in some areas. Winds from the North ramped up yesterday before dying down a little yesterday afternoon and into last night moving significant amounts of snow around and creating reactive wind slabs on East, West, and South facing aspects. Your best chances of avoiding these are by sticking to low angle terrain or wind sheltered areas, keep an eye out for shooting cracks and other signs of instability.
Wide spread wind loading is rapidly happening, actively loading South faces. Due to the strength of the Northerly outflow winds East and West faces are also seeing wind slabs building. These appear to be reactive with both natural and skier triggered avalanches reported yesterday. Slabs appear to be soft so far but that could change to harder slabs as wind transport continues.
Dry Loose could be a problem where snow was unaffected by wind especially on steeper terrain. It is characterized by unconsolidated dry snow on the surface of the snowpack that can slide down steep slopes usually starting at a point and entraining more dry snow with it fanning out in an upside down v shape. These tend to be realtively smaller in size but could easily carry you over hazards if caught.
Much needed snow finally showed up this week, changing things to a much brighter winter outlook. Skiing/riding was great the last few days and wind protected areas will still hold really good snow but the Northerly wind is rapidly changing snow surfaces. All the new snow had bonded well to the old crust below it but it came in very light and dry making it perfect for wind transport as was witnessed with every peak around Juneau and Douglas showing major flagging yesterday. These conditions are creating active wind slabs on many aspects and elevations with South faces being the most likely to hold larger wind slabs, but funneling mountain winds and the sheer amount of snow moving around could create them on all aspects. Extremely cold temperatures are also present with wind chills looking to be well below zero today. Stay vigilant, warm, and alert today and travel with a good partner, avalanche rescue gear and plenty of layers.
