Throughout the region, the snow pack is hanging in there despite the extended clear weather. Of note though is the incredible surface hoar growing in low areas. Today, in numerous areas we saw surface hoar up to 70mm!
Weather Forecast
Mainly cloudy for tomorrow. The alpine high temperature will be -7 by mid afternoon. Winds will remain in the moderate-strong range (up to 50km/hr) with occasional gusts. The direction will be from the west. 3000m winds will be considerably stronger. Our forecast shows speeds of 100km/hr plus. Luckily these will be short lived and focused on the morning and early afternoon. No snow is expected.
Avalanche Summary
No activity was noted.
Snowpack Summary
Surface facetting is ongoing. Right now the top 20cm is noticeably weaker than it was a week ago. Of special note is the surface hoar. During today's snow study mission we visited a number of sites. All areas had surface hoar, and in a few places it reached 60-80mm in size! The midpack is still well settled and strong. The deep, basal layers are hanging in there with a a strong bond between snow grains. Compression tests had no failures at any profile location. The only exception to the well settled snowpack is in shallow areas. In these places the entire snowpack is weak and facetted with no prominent layers. Snow heights are: Burstall Pass:74Burstall Parking:62Dog Leg shoulder (treeline):75
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.