Merry Christmas! High quality snow conditions are a great gift! Watch for wind effected snow pockets and sluffing in steeper terrain.
Weather Forecast
A clearing trend today and cold Christmas afternoon with light northerly winds increasing as the day progresses. Saturday will be warmer with increasing cloud. Sunday we should see flurries throughout the forecast area.
Snowpack Summary
50cm of low density storm snow resides over last week's settled storm snow. Our field observations from the past week show a trend to stable snow. The Dec 2nd layer while still present in the snowpack is becoming hard to trigger. Pockets of soft windslab may be found along alpine ridges. Glacier snow cover ranges from 180cm to 300cm
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanche observations in the last 24hrs.
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.
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.