10-20cm of storm snow has made for excellent skiing! Our main concerns are small buried wind slabs and sluffing in steep terrain. We removed the persistent slab problem because of a lack of activity on this layer, but the structural weakness remains.
Summary
Weather Forecast
A few more cm's of new snow are forecast for Saturday night and Sunday with continued light winds switching from E to SW overnight. Temperatures are forecast to remain cool (-5 to -15°C) depending on elevation with a slight increase Sunday afternoon.
Snowpack Summary
10-20 cm of storm snow with little wind effect sits over buried wind slabs in open areas at higher elevations, and over loose facets at lower elevations. Below this a firm mid-pack covers the Jan surface hoar layers that are rounding and inactive in tests. The deeper facet layers down 80-150 cm remain weak but are presently difficult to propagate.
Avalanche Summary
Small loose snow avalanches/sluffing has been reported in some steep treeline areas with the storm snow failing on the facets below and running a fair distance. A couple small buried wind slab failures have also been reported recently in steep terrain. The persistent weak layers have been inactive for two weeks and have been removed as a problem.
Confidence
Wind speed and direction is uncertain on Monday