Soft powder and good riding may still be found on shady alpine slopes
Check for wind slabs before entering committing terrain.
Wind slabs may remain triggerable on steep, upper elevation wind-loaded slopes, including the lee sides of ridges and cross-loaded features.
Tuesday’s storm produced some natural avalanches observed by the field team, see photo below. Observations have been very limited.
Looking forward, small wind slabs may remain triggerable on shaded, lee alpine slopes. Check for possible slabs before entering steep or committing terrain.
15 to 30 cm of storm snow from earlier in the week has largely bonded with an underlying hard crust. Small wind slabs may still exist at upper elevations on shady north through easterly slopes.
Previously sun-affected slopes likely have a new sun crust which may melt and soften with daytime warming.
The remaining snowpack has no current layers of concern, having undergone multiple melt-freeze cycles, forming a mix of crusts and dense rounded snow. Lower elevations may have wet or isothermal snow to ground.
This MIN post describes the riding conditions at Mt.Cain following the storm.
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy. 10 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1500 m dropping to 1000 m.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 10 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C. Freezing level rising to 1400 m.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy. 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 3 °C. Freezing level 1900 m.
Sunday
Cloudy. 10 to 25 mm of rain at treeline. 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 4 °C. Freezing level 2200 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
