Thin slabs and fast sluffing on the surface have the potential to push riders over cliffs.
Weather Forecast
It will remain cold and dry today, with some thin, high cloud masking the sun. Winds will remain light from the north and east. The ridge of high pressure will slowly break down in the next few days, but our first glimpse of snow won't be until early next week.
Snowpack Summary
5-10cm of soft snow overlies hard snow surfaces of sun crust on steep solar aspects and wind slab at higher elevations. This snow has seen some wind affect and is slow to bond to the underlying layers due to cold temps. A new surface hoar layer is down 5cm at lower elevations. The mid pack is well settled. Cold weather is faceting the snowpack.
Avalanche Summary
Ski-cuts on steeper north aspects yesterday produced fast sluffing to size 1 in the upper 5-15cm of snow. The faceted snow entrained mass and flowed into low angle terrain over 250-300m downhill. While these sluffs were not big enough to bury a person, you would certainly be pushed over by them, disconcerting in "no-fall" zones with cliffs below.
Confidence
The weather pattern is stable
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.