Avalanche Forecast

Good - Wind speed and direction is uncertain

Temperatures are forecast to cool over the next few days with light to moderate winds out of the NW.  No new snow is forecast to fall (unfortunately) but we are way ahead of where we normally are for snow depths.

Avalanche Control in the Buller and EEOR areas on Thursday produced mixed results.  Some areas the bomb produced only a hole and in other avalanches up to sz 2 were encountered.  There were also some areas (steeper terrain) wherein we observed a few loose dry avalanches up to sz 1. 

An additional 35cm of new snow fell overnight along the Smith Dorrien.  At the Highwood pass region, 25cm of snow fell.  Winds were generally moderate out of the SW so we are seeing new windslabs and stormslabs build as we speak!  These new slabs are our main concern in the snowpack.  We really don't have a prominent persistent weak layer within out snowpack at this time but there still are significant weak layer at the interface with the recent new snow.  Buried windslab's are also a concern and backcountry users need to be curious about snowpack and where these concerns may be.  Expect to encounter these problems around ridgelines, and in gullied terrain at treeline and above.