Up to 15cm of new snow has spruced up the skiing, but done little to the hazard level so far. Having said that, watch for isolated pockets of wind slab in the Alpine that may be build over the next 12 to 24hrs.
Weather Forecast
Light flurries tonight will give way to a mostly sunny day on Tuesday and a return to frigid temperatures. The high temperature in the Alpine should reach -22 °C with light NW winds. Wind chill values will be significant. No precipitation is expected for the rest of the week.
Avalanche Summary
Nothing new was observed today, but visibility was quite limited.
Snowpack Summary
10 to 15cm of new snow overnight with some minor wind effect in Alpine. The Dec 18th interface is buried 30 to 60cm at Treeline and remains a concern for human triggering. The Nov crust is buried 80 to 100cm deep and is exhibiting facetting both above and below the crust. At lower elevations the snowpack is weak and unsupportive due to prolonged periods of facetting.
Problems
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.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.