Natural avalanche activity has decreased. Human triggered avalanches are still possible in specific terrain with high consequences.
Weather Forecast
A mix of sun and cloud, alpine temps -4, light winds and no precipitation for today. Freezing levels rise to 1200m ahead of an incoming system. Light precipitation is forecasted to arrive late this evening. By Saturday, freezing levels continue to rise to 1600m with an increase in winds and precipitation. Avalanche hazard will rise with weather.
Snowpack Summary
Ongoing cold weather is weakening the upper snowpack with faceting. Recent stability tests suggest that two persistent weak layers (a variety of surface hoar, crusts and facets) buried down ~100 and ~130cm, are becoming less reactive. The failure character of these layers is still sudden planer. A breakable crust exists below ~1600m.
Avalanche Summary
A few size 1.5, solar triggered, avalanches were observed yesterday. Prior to the cold snap, a widespread avalanche cycle occurred. Large avalanches, with wide propagations, demonstrated the potential of buried weak layers. Some areas have not yet avalanched, for example the Frequent Flyer path up the Connaught Drainage.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
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.