Buried surface hoar has been responsible for many rider triggered avalanches recently and this instability is likely to be more reactive with warmer temperatures and sun shine. Avoid the temptation to be be lured onto larger slopes.
Weather Forecast
High pressure ridge over the Province will maintain mostly clear and dry conditions. Valley fog in most areas and clear above. Temperatures will warm up today to around -5 at 1700m. Mountain top winds will be calm to light. No precipitation is forecast until the end of this week.
Snowpack Summary
A sun crust up to 2cm thick is present on most solar aspects. Settling storm snow over the December 17th surface hoar down 60cm-100cm, still producing rider triggered avalanches. Crust/facet layers are present just below it with varying thicknesses depending on aspect and elevation. The Nov 9 crust is a 30cm basal layer close to or on the ground.
Avalanche Summary
Size 2.0 skier triggered avalanche in Loop Brook area, east aspect moraine feature, at 1700m, down ~60cm on the Dec 17 surface hoar layer, 4-6mm in size. 50m wide and 100m long.
Confidence
Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.