Early season hazards are lurking below the snow surface, ski / ride cautiously and defensively.Manage your sluff in steep terrain.
Weather Forecast
Light flurries today with sunny periods, an alpine high of -5 and a freezing level that could reach up to 1800m. 20km/hr south winds today and increasing to 35km/hr this evening. We're expecting snow to start falling tonight and continue into Monday evening with accumulation up to 25cm. Another 10cm forecasted on Tuesday and 20cm on Wednesday.
Snowpack Summary
5cm of snow overnight, with 25-40cm overlying the Halloween crust at treeline. The crust sits on 50-70cm of rounds/mixed forms and, for the time being, is well bonded. The lower snowpack is a 20cm layer of melt frozen crust. Snowpack is 80-130cm above 1900m.
Avalanche Summary
Several days ago two natural wind slab avalanches were observed in the HWY corridor off Mt Macdonald on steep terrain to size 1.5. No other natural or rider triggered avalanches have been reported recently.
Confidence
Due to the quality of field observations on Saturday
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.