New snow continues to accumulate and has initially fallen with little to no wind. The wind is forecast to pick up Friday night, so expect to see touchy wind slabs develop in lee terrain.
The wind is expected to pick up from the southwest Friday evening into Saturday. There is up to 30 cm of low density new snow just waiting to be redistributed into the lee of terrain features. Buried thick and hard wind slabs are still a concern.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with isolated flurries, moderate wind from the southwest, alpine high temperatures around -10 C.
SATURDAY: Flurries, accumulation 5-10 cm, moderate wind from the south, alpine high temperatures around -11 C.
SUNDAY: Snow, accumulation 15-25 cm, moderate to strong wind from the southwest, alpine high temperatures around -7 C.
MONDAY: Flurries, accumulation 5-10 cm, moderate south wind, alpine high temperatures around -8 C.
There have been no reports of avalanche activity in the past few days. Expect natural storm slab activity to increase on Sunday when moderate to heavy snowfall is forecast.
30 cm of very light new snow has fallen over the past several days. Initially this snow fell with very little wind and is obscuring widespread wind effect from last week. Lingering buried hard wind slabs may still be found. Prolonged cold temperatures last week have faceted the buried wind slabs and wind crust formed during the wind event. Snow depths at White Pass average around 150 cm; deeper locations (higher terrain west of the highway) have as much as 200 cm. It's reasonable to expect a thin snowpack with sugary facets in the Wheaton Valley, although we don't yet have observations to confirm this.
