Cooler temperatures should lower the hazard on Friday. Look for sheltered North facing terrain to avoid the surface crusts at lower elevations and the widespread wind effect up high.
Continued strong winds from the W-NW will keep developing new wind slabs in lee areas at treeline and above. These have been relatively stubborn but keep them in mind in steep terrain. New cornice development has also been observed.
The Jan 30 layer exists as surface hoar in sheltered areas and sun crust on steep southerly aspects 20 to 30cm down. We have observed few avalanches on this interface so far. Cooler temps following the warm up on Thursday should help this bond.
Cooling temperatures overnight and Friday with treeline temperatures in the -8 to -12 C range. A trace of new snow overnight with a clearing trend on Friday and some solar heating as a result. Winds remain in the moderate to strong range out of the NW-N through Friday.
Extensive wind effect in exposed areas above treeline, with wind slabs in lee areas at treeline and in the alpine. Jan 30 surface hoar and sun crust is down 20-40 cm and is becoming less reactive in tests. Temperature/sun crusts are present at lower elevations and up to 2200 m on solar aspects. Shallow snowpack areas remain weak and faceted.
Only one stubborn small cornice failure and some small wind slabs with ski cutting were reported by the local ski hills on Thursday. Some natural solar triggered slides up to size 2 in the warmer Eastern parts of the region were also observed. No other natural avalanches observed or reported.
