Fantastic ice climbing. Light snowfall through the weekend. Good skiing takes a careful eye.
Weather Forecast
Stable mild temperatures, freezing levels creeping up to treeline, pressure dropping towards the weekend, bringing moderate SW winds and light snowfall up to 10cm (over 72 hours).
Snowpack Summary
Isolated pockets of wind slab in alpine. Two distinct crusts are beginning to break down and are sitting in a relatively shallow and facetted snowpack. Field teams noticed widespread consistency in the surface form - yup, it's surface hoar.
Avalanche Summary
Isolated small loose snow avalanches occurred in steep alpine terrain with today's warming temps. Some larger sluffs triggered by skiers up to size 1.
Confidence
Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain
Problems
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.
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.