The back country skiing is less than inspiring these days. Widespread wind slabs offer very challenging conditions!
Weather Forecast
Extreme winds will continue throughout the night. Gusts are expected to reach 90km/hr! The good news is that the temperatures will be reasonably warm, -4 is the expected 2500m low tonight. Tomorrow will see the winds diminish and drop to 30km/r, gusting to 70km/hr from the west. The temperatures will remain around -5 with cloudy skies. No new snow is expected. Freezing level 1500m.
Avalanche Summary
Some spindrift avalanches were seen this morning. Confined alpine gullies in the front ranges had small spindrift avalanches pouring down regularly.
Snowpack Summary
Wind was the name of the game today. Somehow the winds managed to scrub even more snow away during the day today. Most of the snow was picked up and blown to Saskatchewan or sublimated away by the warm air temp. Not a lot of further slab development today in the alpine. Existing alpine surfaces are windslabs of various densities. Treeline is a similar story except for the continued formation of isolated windslabs in open areas. Below treeline is still a breakable crust buried beneath 5-10 cm's of snow.
Problems
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.
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.