A short stint of high pressure is upon us.Careful snow pack evaluation and thoughtful route finding is essential as the desire to push into the alpine takes hold.
Weather Forecast
Back-country users can rejoice as we get a small weather window of benign, clear weather for the next two days. Expect a mix of sun and cloud, chance of convective flurries, an alpine high of -4, light variable winds and a freezing level to 1800m. Friday evening will see another moist pacific storm move through our area, forecasted 10-20cm of snow.
Snowpack Summary
The calm after the storm has left us with 5cm of fresh snow in the past 24hrs, bringing the weekly storm snow total to 45cm which sits on top of a crust on all aspects up to 1900m. Moderate winds from the South may have formed pockets of wind slab at tree line and above. The mid and lower pack is well settled and bonding.
Avalanche Summary
Numerous artillery controlled avalanches yesterday size 2 - 3 occurring at the old snow / storm snow interface.Several glide cracks are opening up in our area and are unpredictable in nature. Avoid these hazards as the results could be large and destructive.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
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.