More natural avalanches were seen today. The snowpack is very slow to adjust to the new snow. Give it more time than usual and be patient.
Weather Forecast
Another evening of cold temps tonight. Tomorrow will see a slight warming trend that will carry on into next week. Overnight low of -17. Mostly clear skies and no snow tonight and tomorrow. Moderate winds at treeline from the SW.
Avalanche Summary
Numerous avalanches were seen, or witnessed directly today. They were all in the alpine on eastern aspects. Notables from the last 24hrs are:-sz3 , alpine bowl on Mt Murray. Initiated at ridgeline and cleared out the entire bowl but also crossed onto the face adjacent to the bowl.-sz2-3 on Snow Peak. 3 individual slides were noted on the same piece of terrain. Individually they were sz2's, but there is a chance they all started and ran together, which would make it a sz3.-several sz2's on different mountains. All these started at treeline with wide propagations.
Snowpack Summary
Wind continues to have the most influence on our snow pack right now. Wind slabs are widespread in the alpine, and are likely dense (1 finger). Gullies are noticeably crossloaded and most are fat with new deposited snow. Treeline is similar, but the windslabs are a softer(4 finger). The amount of avalanche activity seen today suggests the Feb 10 layer is more pronounced at this elevation band. Windslab thickness also varies. Fresh avalanche crowns tell us these slabs can be up to 1m thick.
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.