Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

THURSDAY: no new snow is expected, mainly light to moderate south winds, remaining cool, -10C at 1500m. FRIDAY: Light snow fall, up to 10cm, moderate westerly winds, still cool. SATURDAY: light flurries, light southerly winds becoming westerly, cool.

Avalanche activity appears to have tapered off since the weekend. Avalanche professionals in the field are reporting sluffing in steep terrain in response to skier traffic (aka good skiing). No new avalanches have been reported on the layer of buried surface hoar since last week, although this may be because people have been avoiding locations where it is likely to be found.

It sounds like good riding conditions out there with mainly low density snow on the surface and very little wind effect in the alpine. About 30 to 80cm of snow now sits above a crust that extends up to 1800m. The early December persistent weak layer can now be found down 40-160cm.  This layer can be found as an old sun crust on solar aspects in the alpine, or as large grained surface hoar and small facets in isolated pockets bellow tree-line.  The surface hoar is mainly a concern between 1400m and 1800m although it may extend higher than this in the south of the region.  Snow pit tests on this interface have been widely variable; producing a mixture of sudden and resistant failures or no results. The mid and lower portions of the snowpack are thought to be mainly well settled.