Confidence
Fair - Intensity of incoming weather is uncertain
Weather Forecast
About 10cm of snow is expected for Thursday with moderate accumulations forecast for Friday afternoon and into Friday night.Trace amounts are expected on Saturday.Winds should be strong and southwesterly on Thursday and Friday switching to light and westerly by Saturday. Daytime freezing levels should stay between 1000 and 1300m for the forecast period.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported in this region recently.
Snowpack Summary
In general the snowpack is now well bonded. Generally light snowfall has buried an assortment of old snow surfaces including crusts, old wind slabs, surface hoar and surface facets. This light snowfall has been redistributed by moderate alpine winds and has formed small wind slabs on lee features. The crusts have formed on all aspects at lower elevations and on steep solar aspects higher up. Friday's moist snowfall may have destroyed this surface hoar in many places. Surface facets have grown particularly on northern aspects where colder temperatures have persisted and facets may also exist in combination with crusts. The average treeline snowpack depth at is around 240cm.
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.