March 3rd's 45cm of new snow continues to settle. Choose simple terrain that is well supported. A buried unstable surface hoar layer was found on South aspect at treeline sitting on a crust. Be cognisant of this.
Weather Forecast
Wednesday night will be cold and 5cm new snow. Thursday will be -16 to -20, light S and W winds, and no new of snow. Friday will be -8, flurries, and light E winds. Saturday will be increasing wind speeds into the 25km/hr range out of the West.
Snowpack Summary
45cm of storm snow from March 3 continues to settle into a soft slab generally at treeline and above. The lower snowpack is structurally weak with depth hoar, facets, and a deteriorating rain crust from November. S aspect we found decomposing SH/surface facet layer on a sun crust down 30cm under March 3rd's storm snow. It was testing unstable.
Avalanche Summary
Skiers on March 7 in Bald hills triggered a size 2 from a km away. Report and pictures can be viewed on CAA's Mountain Information Network. No patrol occurred on March 8.
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.
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.