Watch for thin wind slabs if you're traveling in the alpine Tuesday.
Weather Forecast
The ridge continues to dominate the weather pattern. Tuesday: Clear skies. Light NW winds at treeline, Moderate NW winds at ridgetop. Freezing level rising to 1200m, returning to valley bottom overnight. No significant precipitation. Wednesday: Clear skies. Light NW winds at treeline, Moderate NW winds at ridgetop. Freezing level rising to 1500m, returning to valley bottom overnight. No significant precipitation. Thursday: Increasing cloud cover. Light NW winds at treeline, Moderate NW winds at ridgetop. Freezing level rising to 1700m, lowering to 800m Thursday night. No significant precipitation.
Avalanche Summary
A skier was involved in a small wind slab avalanche on a S/SE facing alpine feature on Saturday. See more here: https://bit.ly/1BQ4JtP No other avalanche activity to report from the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
Strong outflow winds (mainly from the north) have created areas of thin wind slab on lee slopes. On other slopes you may find old wind slabs, a sun crust on all solar aspects, surface hoar, surface facets, and/or up to 5 cm of soft snow over a widespread supportive rain crust in wind sheltered areas. The snowpack is generally strong and well settled. However, large cornices may become weak with daytime warming.
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.