Skier triggered avalanches are possible! Don't let your powder goggles blind your avalanche awareness. The sun in March packs punch and can change near surface layers quickly.
Weather Forecast
Expect a mixed bag of weather today with convective flurries as the culprit. Sunny skies in the morning will give way to short lived blustery snow. The next source of precipitation will begin tonight finishing Friday night, dropping 20cm of snow, winds gusting to strong from the south and FL rising.
Snowpack Summary
In March so far we have seen nearly 1m of new snow and strong to extreme winds from the south. Late February crusts are buried 50-90cm deep on solar aspects, and a spotty mixed form layer lies under the storm snow on more polar asp. The Nov Cr remains dormant while the midpack is gaining strength and rounding.
Avalanche Summary
Avalanche activity has been decreasing as a trend, however we are still observing infrequent natural wind slabs failing in steep terrain in the highway corridor to size 2.5.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.