So far our spring is slow to develop. Our spring-like snowpack of last week has gone back to being more of a winter snowpack. Keep the "winter radar" on for the next while.
Weather Forecast
Isolated flurries tonight with winds gusting to 55km/hr (westerly). Alpine low of -12. Tomorrow will see -11 as the high and winds continuing to blow from the west at 25-40km/hr. No snow is expected tomorrow.
Avalanche Summary
Nothing new today, but field observations were very limited. The weather pattern suggests that the isolated activity noted yesterday probably continued into today.
Snowpack Summary
Wind and flurries continue to join forces and create new windslabs in the alpine and exposed treeline terrain. These slabs have been building for the past few days and are getting thicker, more widespread and more sensitive. Natural activity indicates the slabs are up to 70cm thick in wind prone areas. The slabs rest on a variety of surfaces, most of which are aspect or elevation dependant. The march 15 crust is the most concerning buried layer. It is widespread on any solar aspect. The other problematic buried layers are the interfaces between the windslabs themselves. Typically these "heal" up quickly, but we're finding that once one "heals" and goes away, it is replaced with another shallower one.
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.