Great skiing will be the reward for the hard work that trail breaking has become. Eat lots of Christmas cookies before you head out.
Weather Forecast
A quasi stationary arctic front slowly making it's way down from the North East over the next couple of days will bring continued light flurries accompanied by light and variable winds and cooling temperatures.
Snowpack Summary
Up to 20cm of low density snow has fallen since Dec 20th with LNE wind. This has buried several layers of wind slabs formed by previous strong SW winds. Below this is the Dec 9th crust (now down 40-70cm), which has not been reactive, but has future potential. The mid/lower snowpack is strong & consolidated. Travel below 1800m is steadily improving.
Avalanche Summary
Several size 1 loose snow avalanches, both natural and human triggered, have been observed and reported in the past couple of days.
Confidence
Due to the quality of field observations
Problems
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.
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.