Recent snow has deposited 30-40cm of snow in the region. Loose dry avalanches were observed today that were running far and fast from alpine terrain. Ice climbers should be thinking about over head terrain.
Wind slabs are expected in terrain along ridgelines and in gullied areas. Feel for that drummy or hollow snowpack under your feet. This is an indication of a windslab.
Loose dry avalanches within the upper snowpack in steep terrain.
A sz 2 slab was observed on a E aspects at 2400m that was likely triggerred by loose dry avalanches from steep cliffed terrain above. Besides this, lots of loose dry avalanches were observed us to sz 1 from steep terrain that affected ice climbs.
5-8cm of new snow over the past few days has done little to change the overall avalanche danger. Winds have been light but there is pockets of windslabs along ridgelines and in crossloaded gully features that were cracking with skier traffic.
The cold temps are only making the weak base weaker. Unfortunately this will likely remain with us for the season....
The new snow is likely to sluff easily in steeper terrain. This is of particular importance to ice climbers who are often in steep gullies.
Temperatures will become a little less arctic on Saturday with day time highs around -12C. Winds will increase into the moderate range so we expect windslabs to continue to develop. No new snow is expected.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
