Sheltered terrain should offer good skiing above 2000m
Weather Forecast
Cooler temps will follow Tuesday's snowfall with strong SW winds switching to West winds into Wednesday. Broken skies will be replaced by another pulse of snow on Friday and 15-25cm of additional snowfall. Cold arctic air will displace the snow with overnight lows reaching below -20 Saturday morning.
Snowpack Summary
Strong SW winds are moving today's 10-20cm of new storm snow under near zero temps, creating windslabs on lee and cross-loaded features and increasing spring cornices. Early March warm temps created a strong bridging layer, which is capped with a crust on solar aspects to 3000m. This layer is promoting good skiing and travel.
Avalanche Summary
Poor visibility today during storm, no observations from today. Natural avalanches to size 2.5 in the last 5 days from steep, wind loaded terrain. Cornice failures are likely and have caused natural avalanches to size 2 in the last week.
Confidence
Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Friday
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.