Watch for thin fresh soft slab on lee features. Storm snow will obscure previous widespread wind effect in the alpine.
Weather Forecast
Flurries are forecast for today with another 7cm of accumulation. Alpine temperatures should be in the -10C along with SW winds moderate gusting to strong. Arctic high pressure is moving in again bringing cold temps and no precipitation through Thursday.
Snowpack Summary
Widespread wind effect should be expected in exposed terrain at and above treeline. Yesterday's field trip to Overlook basin found variable windslab down to 2000m. 10cm of dry storm snow will now obscure the windslab and breakable crust and may have formed thin soft slab along the immediate lee of ridges.
Avalanche Summary
Over the last few days five new slides to size 2.5 have been observed in the highway corridor. No new avalanches have been observed by our field crews in the backcountry over the last couple of days.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
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.