The weather is changing and the dry spell is coming to an end. With wind and new snow on the way watch for changing avalanche conditions
Weather Forecast
Depending on which forecast model you choose to believe we could see upwards of 20cm of storm snow by Thursday morning. There isn't much snow forecasted to fall today but overnight and into Wednesday we could get another 15cm. This should be accompanied by light S-SW winds.
Snowpack Summary
10-20 cm of new snow buries the January 4th interface. Which is most notably surface hoar in protected areas, sun crust on steep S - SW asps and loose facets at treeline and below. Below the surface weak layer is a well settled supportive snowpack.
Avalanche Summary
Three slides were observed off of the steep north facing terrain of Mt MacDonald in the last few days. These slides were up to size 2 and were loose new snow avalanches running on the old recrystallized surface. Sluffing was more pronounced on steep solar facing terrain.
Problems
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.