On going wind continues to load alpine start zones.
Give lee aspect terrain at all elevations a wide berth as more time is needed to allow slabs to settle and bond.
Extreme wind has redistributed recent storm snow, forming deep deposits in lee and cross-loaded terrain features at all elevations. Treat the snowpack as suspect anywhere the snow surface isn't scoured.
A weak layer of facets may be found 70 to 100 cm deep. In shallower inland areas, weak depth hoar exists to ground. Shallower wind slabs could step down to this layer, producing very large avalanches.
On Thursday, observations of large avalanches ( size 3) where reported as being 24-36 hours old. A small persistent slab was remotely trigger and this supports the likelihood of human triggering of this avalanche problem.
A large natural avalanche cycle occurred during periods of rapid loading on Tuesday night into Wednesday.
Around 30 to 40 cm of snow accumulated over the past few days. Extreme southerly wind means that even deeper deposits are found on northerly and crossloaded slopes, while south-facing slopes remain scoured.
A weak layer of facets may be found around 70 to 100 cm deep. In shallow snowpack areas, the bottom half of the snowpack is composed of weak depth hoar.
Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 100 m.
Friday
Cloudy. 2 cm of snow. 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 400 m.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 600 m.
Sunday
Mix of sun and clouds. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 2500 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
