The recent storm brought 40 to 50 cm of low density snow with very little wind. Forecasters are working to gather more information concerning the Jan 5 layer and until more is known conservative terrain choices are advised. Great skiing!
Weather Forecast
A ridge of high pressure will dominate for the period with a generally cool, sunny, dry, North Westerly pattern with light winds. A few cm of new snow are expected Friday. Dry conditions Saturday and Sunday.
Snowpack Summary
50 cm low density storm snow above 1500m with little wind effect or slab formation. The Jan 5 interface is now down 70-90cm with a 30-40 cm soft slab immediately above it. This interface produced Moderate to Hard test results on Surface Hoar in sheltered N and E locations. Suncrust exists at this interface on steep S aspects. 290 cm at treeline
Avalanche Summary
Limited Visibility continues. Skiers will experience sluffing in steep terrain. Skier triggering is possible on the Jan 5 interface. Forecasters have been making conservative terrain choices while gathering more information about this layer.
Confidence
Due to the number 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.
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.