Cooler temps are helping to strengthen the snowpack. Watch for isolated pockets of windlslabs along ridgelines and crossloaded features.
Weather Forecast
An additional 5cm of snow is forecast to fall overnight with generally light winds. Alpine temperatures on Monday will be cooler with day time highs around -5C under a partly cloudy sky. When the sun does come out, it has alot of punch at this time of year so be aware that solar aspects may quickly deteriorate if the sky goes clear.
Avalanche Summary
A few new loose dry slides were observed on Sunday mainly occurring from steep unskiable terrain.
Snowpack Summary
10-15cm of new snow has fallen in the past 24hrs with very little wind affect noted. This snow is overlying a thin breakable temperature crust that formed on Friday (March 16th) on solar aspects and in lower elevations such as valley floors. On northern aspects the snow is still remaining dry with only isolated windslabs being found in alpine areas. If you are travelling on more solar aspects, ne sure to dig down and check the bond between this most recent snow and the underlying crusts. Two main crusts are being noted the March 16th crust (down 15-20cm) and the March 7th crust down (30-40cm).
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.