The snowpack is very tricky right now. Several skier triggered avalanches have occurred in the past 24hrs, one of them being a fatality. Careful route selection and intimate understanding of the snowpack is essential for safe travel. Another approach is to avoid or limit your exposure to avalanche terrain altogether.
New slabs extend well below ridge lines. Expect crossloading in most features. Cornice failures may also trigger this layer. These wind slabs are now buried with up to 20cm on them.
This layer is breaking down at the upper limits. At 2250m it is much weaker than last week.
Avalanches may step down to the weaker deep basal layers. If this layer is involved, expect full path avalanches.
No new avalanches have been reported today. However on Sunday, three skier triggered avalanches occurred:
A party of two were skiing on The Tower (near Engadine Burn) and triggered a size 3 avalanches. Two skiers were fully buried and unfortunately one of them was a fatality. Please see the MIN report for more details.
A party triggered a size 2 avalanche at Burstall Pass and no one was injured. Please see the MIN report.
A party triggered a size 2 avalanche on the Tryst chutes which buried one skier up to their neck. Please see the MIN report.
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MIN REPORTS: Click on the blue, red or black drops on the map for detailed information.
Where to start??? Up to 20cm of new snow sits on the surface. The snowpack is quite complex as all of the following layers are possible to trigger avalanches:
Buried sun crusts on solar aspects down 20cm will provide a good sliding layer for the new snow to slide if the sun comes out. Be aware of what is above you.
This last weekends wind slabs are now buried up to 20cm and have possibly been one of the triggers to wake up deeper layers in the snowpack.
The February 2 crust is down approximately 70-100cm and has started to facet out around itself, providing a good sliding layer. This layer was the trigger for most of the avalanches on Sunday.
The basal facets found near the bottom of the snowpack have been triggered by failures of the above layers.
Careful route selection is key as well as taking a closer look at the snowpack to understand where all the weaknesses lie.
Tuesday will be a mixed bag of cloud, flurries and maybe a few sun rays in the afternoon. Somewhere in all that, 3-6cm of snow is forecast and some 40-50km/hr SW winds. Temperatures are expected to climb to -3c in the alpine.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
