Northwest Inland

Wind slabs sitting on cold, sugary faceted surfaces may take longer to bond than we are used to. There may be potential for wide propagation on bigger terrain features.

SUNDAY NIGHT - Overcast, 1-5 cm, light to moderate south west wind, low -14

MONDAY - Cloudy, 2-5 cm of snow, light to moderate south west wind / highs of -9

TUESDAY - Cloudy, trace amounts of snow, strong north west wind, highs of -7

WEDNESDAY - Partly cloudy, trace snow amounts, moderate north west wind, high of -6

Wind slabs have been reactive to human triggering in wind loaded and cross loaded features. Most ski cut results have been in the size 1 to 1.5 range, but bigger terrain features could produce larger propagation and bigger avalanches! 

Wind slabs are going to take extra time to heal where they sit on cold faceted surfaces. On Saturday hard windslabs were easy to trigger in the Crater Lake area as evidenced by this MIN.

In the Babine area a field team noted numerous size 1-2 wind slabs in the alpine from the past 36 hours. They also posted this MIN from the Onion. This is in keeping with other avalanche observations from the outflow winds cycle like this size 2 near Miller Creek.

In the south west part of the region, a natural size 3 cornice triggered avalanche was reported, although the date was uncertain.

Check out this forecaster MIN post from Microwave from Thursday to see the widespread wind effects. 

A Feb 9th MIN observation shows some stiff wind affected snow over sugary facets.

Small amounts of new snow have fallen on hard slabs, scoured slopes and sastrugi where outflow effects have been the strongest. In more sheltered zones, reactive wind slabs will be found on a variety of aspects and elevations due to terrain effects and the variable wind directions. Some of these wind slabs are sitting on cold faceted snow.

In more sheltered areas, the cold temperatures are encouraging surface faceting. The late January interface is down 30-50 cm, consisting of isolated surface hoar in sheltered locations, and previous wind effect in exposed areas. On solar aspects, a buried sun crust can be found in places as well.

The lower snowpack has two decomposing crust layers. The upper crust is 70-140 cm deep and continues to show occasional hard, sudden results in snow pits. The deeper crust at the bottom of the snowpack is more prevalent in shallow snowpack ranges. These deep persistent layers seem to be dormant under the current conditions, but shallow rocky slopes should still be carefully assessed and approached with caution. 

• Recent wind has varied in direction so watch for wind slabs on all aspects.
• Watch for signs of instability like whumpfing, hollow sounds, shooting cracks or recent avalanches.
• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
• Be aware of the potential for wide propagation.