Harsh weather today consisting of strong SW winds and rain to 2500 m. Few avalanches over the day, but things should improve as winds ease, temps cool, and precipitation ends Sunday morning.
Strong West - Southwest winds and the new snow has created pockets of wind slab treeline and above. Watch for wind affected areas in steep terrain while climbing or skiing.
A thin crust exists in the lower snowpack and has been the failure plane for a few skier accidental avalanches in the past 4 days to size 2.0. This layer has been recently loaded by wind, rain, and snow and may be reactive on steeper features.
Treeline temperatures should cool to just below zero and winds will ease to moderate from the SW through through tonight and Saturday. Only light snow is forecasted for Saturday. Another hit of snow is forecasted for Sunday as the arctic air moves in causing temperatures to plummet to -15C through the day. We should see an improving trend.
Warm temperatures & rain have left moist surface snow to 2500 m. Treeline snow depths range from 50-70 cm deep (up to 110 cm in lee areas). The October crust in the lower snowpack has been the failure in recent skier involvements.
Recent explosive control triggered windslabs to size 2.0. One explosive triggered slab on Mt. Stephan, stepped down to near glacial ice resulting in a size 2.5 avalanche. Earlier this week there were 2 skier triggered avalanches (see the MIN). Today, a few loose wet avalanches to size 1.5 were observed in the Little Yoho region (Mt Denis climbs)..
