Regions
Northwest Inland.
It sounds like the surface hoar buried in wind loaded features might be starting to wake up.
Weather Forecast
Thursday: Cloudy with sunny periods and intermittent flurries bring up to 3cm through the day. Winds will be light from the southwest with a treeline temperature of -15C. Friday: Cloudy with sunny periods, no precipitation expected, light southeast winds and a temperature of -15C at 1500m. Saturday: Light snowfall with 3-5cm expected, light to moderate southeasterly winds and temperatures between -7 to -15 at treeline.
Avalanche Summary
It sounds there has been some surprisingly large skier remote and ski cut releases in wind loaded features. These avalanche have apparently been failing on one of the two buried layers of surface hoar we are concerned with.
Snowpack Summary
5-10cm of new snow overlies a crust on steep solar aspects, or a layer of surface hoar on sheltered and shady slopes at all elevations. Moderate to strong southwest through south east winds have been loading lee features. 10 to 15 cm below this is a second buried weak layer again consisting of a melt-freeze crust on solar aspects in the alpine or well-developed surface hoar in sheltered areas at treeline and lower elevations. Deeper still, the mid and lower snowpack is generally faceted.
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.