Avoid steep solar aspects if the sun is shinning as this will increase the avalanche danger. Have a dig into the upper snowpack and look for weak layers before committing to the line.
Weather Forecast
Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries for the day with a temperature range of 0 to -9, 10-25km/h southerly winds and a freezing level rising to 1450m. 10-15cm of forecasted snow tonight and into Friday. There will be a clearing trend arriving over weekend and will continue into next week. Clear skies, light winds and no snow is our near future.
Snowpack Summary
Expect to find several crust layers on steep solar aspects in the top 50cm of snow. ~30cm of recent snow overlies previous wind slab in the alpine. The late Feb facet layer is down ~50cm and the mid Jan persistent weak layer is down ~1-2m. A well settled base contains early season crusts, which are starting to break down in some areas.
Avalanche Summary
A small cycle occurred yesterday on steep solar aspects when the sun was shinning, expect this to be an increasing trend with sun in the forecast.Earlier this week a large cornice failure released a size 3.5 avalanche running to valley bottom. This cornice triggered slide was an anomaly, but a good reminder to stay vigilant in large terrain.
Confidence
Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain on Friday
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.