The new snow may hide reactive hard wind slabs at treeline and in the alpine.
Weather Forecast
A descending artic front is going to dominate the weather for the next few days with a cooling and clearing trend. Mainly light northeasterly winds on Thursday will bring some upslope precipitation with accumulations of up to 10cm expected and a high of -7 early in the day. Friday will be sunny with cloudy periods, light northwesterly winds, and a high of -10. Saturday will be mainly sunny with a high of -8, although there is some indication an inversion may be developing, and light westerly winds.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported recently.
Snowpack Summary
The Avalanche Canada field team have finding widespread wind effect with thin but stiff laminated wind slabs in lee features at treeline and in the alpine. These slabs have been failing under moderate loads in recent snow pit tests and show propagation propensity. This suggests the potential for human triggering resulting in surprisingly large avalanches considering the thickness of the slab. At lower elevations a skiff of snow may be covering a layer or recently buried surface hoar. The early December crust can be found down around 60cm.
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.