Not all wind slab problems are created equal. Recent touchy, remote triggering demands careful terrain analysis and selection. Seek out sheltered snow to stack the odds in your favour.
Continuing light snowfall and southerly winds are promoting wind slab formation on an ongoing basis.
Investigate for wind slab around ridges or lee features and use wide safety margins - remote triggering has been observed.
Skiers remote-triggered a large wind slab from 100 m away in the Little Simpson area on Hudson Bay Mountain on Monday. It failed on faceted snow and is a concerning example of the snowpack's current potential.
Up north, a 20 - 40 cm deep layer of surface hoar on the early-December crust was reactive to skiers in the Ningunsaw area recently and produced a large natural avalanche in the same area on Monday.
Please share your observations on the Mountain Information Network.
Light new snow amounts have been adding to heavily wind affected surfaces in the alpine and at treeline. By end of day on the 25th, we should see another 5 - 10 cm.
The crust from early December is now buried 20 to 40 cm. In some areas, large surface hoar crystals are found at this interface. We are trying to track the distribution of this surface hoar across the region. Faceted snow is perhaps more likely to find at this interface and poses a similar problem.
Check out this helpful MIN report.
Tuesday night
Cloudy with scattered flurries and up to 5 cm of new snow. 40 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level 1000 m.
Wednesday
Cloudy with flurries bringing around 5 cm of new snow in the afternoon. 30 to 50 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature approaching -1 °C with freezing level reaching 1300 m by end of day.
Thursday
A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C.
Friday
Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries. 30 to 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
