Overnight winds may have created reactive windslabs in alpine and tree-line lee features. Use caution when entering the top of your line.
Weather Forecast
We are back into the cold weather today, with mainly sunny skies and an alpine high of -20*C. Winds should drop to light northerlies. For Wed/Thursday, temp's should warm a few degrees and the sunshine will continue with light north winds. No snow is in the forecast until possibly the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
10-15cm of low density snow fell in the last 36hrs. Overnight SW winds will have created windslabs along the lee of alpine ridges. This sits on a variety of old surfaces, from hard windslab, to breakable crust, to faceted soft snow in protected areas. Field snowpack tests are producing mod-hard resistant planar results in the upper 50-70cm.
Avalanche Summary
Numerous loose and storm slab avalanches were observed yesterday from Mt Macdonald and Mt Tupper, all originating from steep, unskiable terrain. No new avalanches have been observed by our field crews in the backcountry over the last couple of days.
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.