Cool temperatures and minimal precipitation expected over the next few days. Be wary of big steep slopes in the alpine, particularly shallow areas with slab over facets. Human triggering is still possible.
Weather Forecast
Cooling trend through the weekend, with freezing levels dropping to 900m with good recovery overnight with lows of -15C. Clear skies through the weekend with light to moderate Southwest winds. No new snow on the horizon until Sunday night, with only light flurries amounting to less than 5cm.
Snowpack Summary
Moderate SW winds have built wind slab at tree-line and above. These slabs may be up to 40cm thick. The mid-pack consists of buried wind and persistent slab with a failure plane down 60cm that is producing mostly resistant planar results in tests. In the valley bottom the snowpack is weak and unconsolidated making for tough trail breaking.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches observed today.
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.
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.