Weather Forecast
A ridge of high pressure will remain in place one more day. Expect a mix of sun and cloud today with alpine temps around -13 and light ridge top winds. A frontal system will move into the region Sunday afternoon bringing light snow, winds increasing to moderate from the SW. Moderate snow is forecast for Monday and Tuesday, with rising temps.
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 are producing fast sluffing to size 1 in the upper 5-15cm in loose, faceted 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
Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain on Monday
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.