The storm snow continues to settle. Warming temperature will see the avalanche danger increasing.
Weather Forecast
Rising freezing levels and flurries are forecast for today with light S'ly winds. Tonight precipitation increases with mod SW winds and rising temperature. Wednesday the alpine high should reach +2C with wind gust to strong SW and continued precipitation. Thursday the main storm hit occurs with high winds, warm temps and heavy precipitation.
Snowpack Summary
The Halloween crust and weak layer continues to form down 100cm in the pack. Sun kissed solar aspects yesterday forming a thin crust. A Saturday profile at treeline at the approach to Bruin's ridge found easy test results 70cm down on surface hoar on thin crust-the Nov 9 interface. Tests at Fidelity at 1900m found mod shear down 43cm on stellars.
Avalanche Summary
Over 30 avalanches size 2-3 recorded in the highway corridor from the 19th and 20th. Most of these slides appeared to be storm snow based with a few releasing down to the Halloween crust. A recent size 2 slide was observed in Cheops North 1 and Frequent Flyer ran size 2 to valley bottom early in the weekend storm.
Confidence
Freezing levels are uncertain on Wednesday
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.