Snow is coming, but so is the wind. Danger will increase through the week. Today avoid exposure to slopes with cornices overhead. Cornice failures have been occurring with the fluctuation from brittle cold temps to strong solar.
Weather Forecast
The weather pattern is shifting with a series of storms expected. Today expect increasing cloud, with an alpine high of -15'C and gusty W'ly winds at ridgetop. Overnight flurries are expected to bring ~12cm with winds gusting to strong. Tomorrow will be mainly cloudy with flurries, and a high of -13'C. By Thursday we expect 10cm with strong winds.
Snowpack Summary
Over the past two weeks, dribs and drabs of snow have added up to ~30-50cm over the Feb 14 layer, which is a crust everywhere but north aspects above ~1600m where pockets of surface hoar may lurk. Recent snowpack tests indicate that the Feb 14 interface is bonding. In the alpine, variable winds have formed thin windslabs in immediate lees.
Avalanche Summary
Recent human triggered avalanche activity has been limited to sluffing in steep terrain, and small pockets of reactive windslab in the alpine. In the region, cornices have been failing, providing large triggers. In most cases they have not triggered avalanches, but in a few locations have triggered very large, deep avalanches.
Confidence
Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain
Problems
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.