Convective flurries and periods of sun may be enough for a wet loose problem.
Wet loose avalanches can start small but may gain enough mass to trigger wind slabs. Keep overhead hazards in mind.
Dry snow at upper elevations is being redistributed by moderate to strong winds. New wind slabs are likely developing over a previous surfaces of old wind slab, hard wind pressed snow and/or a crust.
A buried layer of facets in the snowpack is expected to be more reactive in wind-affected thin rocky terrain features. Triggering of this layer is less likely where a supportive crust is present.
In the Seaton area the field team reported a very large natural avalanche size 3.5 that occurred on the weekend during the storm. This avalanche released on the facet/crust layer. They also had several whumpfs and remotely triggered a small size 1 in a shallow rocky terrain feature where the persistent weak layer was close to the surface.
Numerous size 2 to 2.5 wind slab avalanches occurred over the weekend.
Up to 10 cm of low density snow from overnight convective flurries and clear skies during the day may be enough initiate small loose snow avalanches.
This new snow overlies wind affected snow, with wind slabs in lee terrain features. Wind slabs remain reactive and are slow to bond to previously heavily wind pressed surfaces. A surface crust can be found up to 1500 m.
Below this, a layer of facets from early February and a thick crust from late January are at a similar depth between 70 and 110 cm deep. This layer remains possible to trigger with large loads and is likely found more easily on north facing slopes.
Wednesday Night
Partly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Thursday
Mostly sunny. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Friday
Mostly sunny. 1 to 3 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Saturday
Mostly sunny. 1 to 2 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
