Rocks, stumps, and crevasses still lurk beneath the shallow, early-season snowpack.
Weather Forecast
High overcast, light winds, and nil precipitation is forecasted for today. Freezing levels to rise to 1900m. Tomorrow and Saturday, we may see scattered flurries, with up to 5cm of accumulation, and light westerly ridge-top winds. Freezing level to drop to 1500m.
Snowpack Summary
Little change from yesterday, with continued settling of the snowpack, exposing more early season hazards. Sun crusts exist on steeper south/southwest aspects. Wind-pressed soft slab and facets overlay the November 12 surface hoar layer in tree-line and alpine areas. The surface hoar is down between 40-100cm at higher elevations.
Avalanche Summary
No new significant activity observed from previous 24 hours. Older crown-lines to size 2 were observed near the top of the Youngs Peak Headwall, likely 72+ hours old.
Confidence
Due to the number and quality of field observations
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.