By Friday morning recent snowfalls will total up to 25cm of dense snow at treeline and above. Watch for windslabs as you approach open terrain and stick to well supported features. Give the snowpack time to settle to this new loading. Thin spots where you can trigger the basal weakness will be hard to determine. If you go out, you are going to want to talk some skin wax! Pay close attention to the temperatures and the quality of the freeze overnight. Winter isnt over yet!
Watch for windslabs on all aspects failing within the new snow from the past 24hrs. This problem also includes storm slabs that are developing from settlement.
Facets near the base of the snowpack may be triggered from thin areas. Solar slopes could see full depth avalanches when they heat up with daytime warming. Low probability, high consequence avalanches should be in your mind.
No new natural or skier triggered avalanches were observed on Thursday. Conditions were limited for getting opportunities to see into Alpine/Treeline areas.
Over the past 24hrs 20cm of warm snow has fallen at treeline and above with closer to 10cm at the valley floor. This snow has fallen under the influence of a more easterly flow so windslabs have been building on all aspects. Due to the heavy nature of the snow, it has also been fast to settle creating some storm slabs in open areas and even overloading the basal facet layers at lower elevations failing as a wet deep persistent slab.
The rain event on Wednesday soaked the snow at lower elevations up to around 2200m making it almost isothermal and limiting any dry snow being found. Our only hope for dry snow is on high north aspects that was above our most recent freezing level. This is also the area where the windslabs are most reactive.
An important thing to consider at this time of year is the Quality of the freeze overnight. Over the past 2 days, freezes have been generally poor with overnight lows only around -4C. Avalanche danger can change from low in the cool mornings to high in the hot afternoons. The timing of this change is important to monitor so plan you trips with these factors in mind.
Temperatures will remain stable over the next 24hrs with daytime highs around -2C in the valley floor. Snowfall is forecast to continued with the associated upslope flow and we are expecting another 5-10cm to fall overnight. Winds will continue to be just into the moderate range out of the SE. By late day Friday, winds will become more westerly as the upslope storm moves out of the region.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
