Regions
Northwest Inland.
Confidence
Poor - Due to limited field observations
Weather Forecast
Saturday: Expect a significant drying trend. Mixed skies, with a slight chance of flurries, alpine temperatures reaching -6 and light easterly winds.Sunday/Monday: Isolated clouds with sunny breaks, alpine temperatures reaching -8 in the afternoons and winds remaining light from the southeast.
Avalanche Summary
No new information from the region. Reports from Wednesday include evidence of Tuesday's natural avalanche cycle with wind slab avalanches up to Size 2.5 failing within the storm snow on steep terrain features. One Size 3 cornice-triggered persistent slab avalanche stepped down to the surface hoar buried a month ago.
Snowpack Summary
15-35cm of recent snow is generally bonding well to the previous snow surface, which includes a crust, facets and/or surface hoar. Strong westerly winds created widespread hard and soft wind slabs in exposed areas, which are reactive to human triggers on steep wind-loaded rolls. Below treeline, the surface snow is undergoing daily melt-freeze cycles with the upper metre of snow becoming wet and losing cohesion by mid-afternoon. Concerns remain for a patchy persistent weakness buried a month ago, and deeper in the snowpack, basal facets may become a concern with continued mild temperatures. Cornices are well-developed and could easily become unstable during periods of warm weather or direct solar radiation.
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.