Conditions are complex. Choosing conservative terrain during the sunny weekend is your best bet.
Confidence
Fair - Due to the number and quality of field observations
Weather Forecast
Tonight and Saturday: Cold front has passed through the region, leaving behind a colder NW flow with lingering moderate snowfall amounts for tonight. Expect moderate to strong NW winds with freezing level at valley bottom and temperatures around -12 C at 1500 m. Sky should be partly cloudy on Saturday.Sunday: The ridge of high pressure keeps dominating the weather pattern keeping freezing levels low, moderate winds from the NW and partly cloudy skies. Monday: Light amounts of snow is possible as an upper disturbance cross over the region.
Avalanche Summary
Poor visibility resulted in limited terrain observation. We expect some avalanche activities happened and might still be happening with loading of new snow.
Snowpack Summary
Around 45 cm of new snow fell over the region with moderate W-SW winds creating touchy storm slabs and wind slabs on leeward alpine and top of treeline elevation band. Loading will continue on E-SE slopes on Saturday as winds keep blowing during the day tomorrow from the NW. Natural avalanche activity is still possible on leeward slopes in the alpine and top of treeline because of the storm snow available for transport. The storm snow interface has produced moderate snowpack test results and deeper surface hoar weak layers have produced hard test results. The persistent weak layers of surface hoar and facet/crust down 80-100 cm are a concern to avalanche professionals since triggering a fresh windslab or stormslab could step down to these layers and create bigger problems. Areas with shallower snowpack and rocky/planar slopes have also been reported as weak due to basal facetting (sugary, non-supportive snow at the bottom of the snowpack).
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.