Hazardous avalanche conditions will exist throughout the park with ongoing heavy snowfall and extreme winds.
Avoid exposure to all avalanche terrain.
A persistent weak layer is buried 80-120cm deep. This persistent weak layer is made up of surface hoar at treeline and below. On solar aspects in the alpine and treeline this PWL is a suncrust. Storm slabs could step down to these layers boosting the avalanche sizes!
Heavy snowfall, strong to extreme winds and rising temperatures will create a touchy stormslab. Expect this stormslab to be failing naturally and very sensitive to human triggering. Avalanches will likely be large and running full path.
With lots of new snow and wind there have been numerous avalanches in the region.
A quick scan through the MIN reports will show a number of recent avalanche occurrences. A crew heading to the Asulkan hut triggered an avalanche that involved 3 people, one of which was mostly buried. Read about that here.
Neighboring operations are reporting both reactive windslab and perisistant slab problems that are producing avalanches up to size 3.5!
Up to 100 cm over the past week was accompanied by moderate to strong winds. This has formed wind slabs in the alpine and on exposed slopes at treeline.
Below this weeks storm snow, a layer of surface hoar is buried 60-100cm deep in sheltered areas at treeline & below. On solar slopes, the storm snow sits over a crust which is also acting as failure plan for human triggered avalanches.
Heavy snowfall, strong winds & warm temps are forecast for the beginning of the week.
Tonight: Periods of snow, Snow: 20cms. Alpine Low -6°C. Winds SW 30 km/h gusting to 55. Freezing level (FZL) 1300m
Mon Heavy snowfall, 39 cm. Alpine High -1°C. Winds SW 35-45km/h. FZL 1800m
Tues Flurries, 8 cm. Alpine high 1°C. Winds SW 25 to 45km/h. FZL 2300m
Wed Cloudy with flurries, 1-2cms. Alpine high -5°C. Winds: light. FZL 1300m
