New snow and strong winds have formed a reactive storm slab. Wait for the snow to settle and bond before stepping out onto large terrain features.
Fresh snow and strong winds have created a reactive storm slab. Expect this to be most reactive in areas with wind loading like ridge top lee features. If triggered these avalanches may travel farther than expected on a buried crust.
The new snow and wind caused a small natural avalanche cycle up to size 2.5 through the highway corridor on Tuesday. A field team was also able to easily trigger several size 1 storm slabs from steep terrain at treeline.
A widespread, natural avalanche cycle occurred up to size 3.5 on Thursday and Friday of last week during the atmospheric river. Explosive avalanche control also produced results up to size 4.
Check out pics from the recent avalanche cycle in the MIN Reports.
In the alpine, 100 - 150cm of recent snow was redistributed by strong winds.
At treeline and below up to 30cms sits on a thick crust that has moist snow below. Another crust from early March is buried 70-150 cm deep.
The Feb 9 and Jan 26 surface hoar layers are now buried 150-210 cm deep. These layers have become less active with the colder temperatures.
Flurry activity will continue through the remainder of this week with by strong to extreme wind gusts.
Tonight Flurries - trace. Alpine low -9°C. Winds SW 25 gusts to 105km/h. Freezing level (FZL) 800m
Wed Flurries up to 7cm. Alpine high -8°C. Wind SW 25-gusts to 80km/h. FZL 1100m
Thur Flurries up to 4cm. Alpine high -11°C. Wind SW 25-45km/h. FZL 800m
Fri Flurries trace. Alpine high -6°C. Wind SW 25-35km/h. FZL 1500m
