Seek out areas of sheltered snow for the safest, best quality skiing and riding conditions.
Recent snow and extreme southwesterly winds have created wind slabs in many locations, even open areas below treeline. These will likely continue to be reactive to the weight of a person or machine over the near term.
The same conditions have formed fragile new cornice growth.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Mainly cloudy. Light to moderate northwest winds.
SATURDAY: A mix of sun and cloud. Light to moderate northwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -13.
SUNDAY: Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing under 5 cm of new snow. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -12.
MONDAY: Cloudy. Light variable winds. Alpine high temperatures around -13.
On Tuesday, our field team reported widespread wind effect at all elevations, creating fragile cornices and reactive wind slabs on north and east facing slopes below ridgetops. MIN report HERE. Reports since that time have highlighted widespread wind effect throughout the region.
On Monday our field team observed some size 2 natural avalanches on a north facing alpine feature east of Crescent Spur. These likely ran over the weekend.
On Sunday we received some great observations of avalanches running naturally on a crust in the trees in "The Farm" area, more details here.
30-50 cm of recent snow and extreme southwest winds have created large, fragile cornices and widespread wind slabs in many locations, even open areas below treeline.
Underneath the recent snow you are likely to find a hard melt-freeze crust that can be found up to about 1600 m. You may also find a weak layer of buried surface hoar in isolated, sheltered locations below treeline. As storm snow continues to settle and form slab properties, these layers could become reactive to human traffic, particularly where buried surface hoar exists.
Around 60 to 130 cm of snow rests above another weak layer buried in early-December. On Jan 14th our field team found it in the Holmes area. This setup has created a persistent slab avalanche problem and a low probability/high consequence scenario. Depending on location, the buried weak layer is composed of surface hoar and/or a crust/facet combination. Reports suggest that this layer has become dormant in much of the region except perhaps for the Pine Pass area.
