Are certain you know the recent history of that steep open slope? Did it already avalanche? Or, was it previously beaten up by the wind, the sun or heavy skier traffic?
If the answer is no, it's probably best to give it a miss.
Warming temps and moderate winds will promote further windslab development on Thursday.
Older windslabs created by strong Southwest winds with Mondays storm remained reactive on Wednesday.
The Jan 29th surface hoar (where preserved) is buried 40-60cm deep - making it likely to trigger on open slopes without previous activity.
Practice good group management, skiing from safe spot to safe spot.
A couple low pressure systems moving inland, give light snow Thursday, and a more substantial snowfall Friday.
Tonight: Cloudy with isolated flurries. Alpine Low -17*C. Light SW ridgetop wind
Thurs: Flurries (5cm). High -6*C, moderate SW winds
Fri: Snow (20cm). Low -8*C, high -6*C. Mod-extreme SW winds
Sat: Isolated flurries, Strong W wind, High -7*C
10-20cm of low density new snow is now hiding the slabby 30-50cm that fell with mod-strong SW winds on Monday. This overlies various drought interfaces: the Jan 29 surface hoar (5-15mm) on all sheltered/shady slopes, wind effect/crust in exposed areas, and a suncrust on solar aspects. The Dec 1 crust/facet combo is down 1.5-2.5m.
Avalanche control in the Cougar Corner and Abott paths on Wednesdays, produced several slab avalanches, up to size 2.0.
On Tuesday, a crew on Abbott were able to easily ski cut sz 1-1.5 slab avalanches on convexities.
On Monday, natural activity occurred at all elevations, with widespread storm slabs failing on the Jan 29th layer.
