Use careful assessment as the Mid January Crust begins to get buried deeper. This crust has weak facets above and below it.
The field team was able to find good skiing on mellow slopes in more sheltered areas. Ridge crests have been more dramatically affected by the wind.
Strong to extreme wind this week has grown wind slabs at all elevations. If triggered wind slabs may step down to the Mid January Crust and larger avalanches would be possible.
Weak grains in the form of facets have developed above and below the Mid January crust. Compression tests have yielded moderate sudden collapses and at least one avalanche was observed on this layer this week. With more load this layer may become easier to trigger.
Several natural wind slab avalanches up to size 2 were observed while on a field day this week.
Thanks to all the great posts this week on the Mountain Information Network, keep it up!!!
10-20 cm of new windslab sits atop of older wind slabs at treeline and above or on steeper exposed slopes below treeline. Extreme W winds in the last two weeks have scoured some windward slopes down to the Jan crust. The total snow depth above the crust at treeline is approx. 50-70 cm. The crust is widespread and exists up to 2400 m. We are starting to see weak crystals develop above the crust and have observed at least 1 size 2 avalanche on this layer in the park.
Saturday
Partially cloudy with flurries through the day. Alpine temps steady around -5. Winds S-X SW
Sunday
Partially cloudy with flurries through the day. Alpine temps steady around -5. Winds S-X SW
Monday
Overcast with snow getting heavier through the day. Alpine temps climb to -2 with winds M-W.
