The continuous flurries are slowly leaving enough snow to create soft slabs in the alpine. There is still some great skiing out there in sheltered, treeline areas. Just be prepared to walk for it.
Weather Forecast
A few flurries tonight, mostly near the divide. No significant accumulation. Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries tomorrow. Accumulation will be minimal, maybe a few cm's at most. The alpine high will be -10. Winds will be from the west and range from 20-40km/hr.
Avalanche Summary
One wind lip/small cornice remotely failed from 15m away. The failure plain was preserved surface hoar. 2400m, E aspect at Burstall Pass, immediate lee and very unsupported terrain.
Snowpack Summary
Today saw some flurries move through the area that left up to 5cm in places. There was some wind with this snow, but transport was limited to the alpine. The below treeline snowpack hasn't gained any strength at all and has seen no change in terms of avalanche hazard. A full profile at treeline had encouraging results today. The snow depth was 120cm and where sheltered, had no failures or trouble layers. Ski penetration was 20cm and very supportive in all areas. In windy areas the it was a similar story, but the layers were all windslabs that have been laminated together into a cohesive snowpack. In the alpine, we had an unexpected surface hoar problem show up. On a few exposed ridges, we found very touchy slabs & cornices on unsupported rolls. The sliding surface was a layer of preserved surface hoar up to 8mm in size and in one case the slab was 50cm thick. This condition is not widespread and the features we found it on were not threatening terrain from an avalanche perspective. Very surprising for such a windy place.
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.
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.