We've received a welcome storm that has left 30-50cm of new snow. This snow is warm and able to quickly form touchy slabs. Watch winds and sun exposure carefully.
There will be new wind slabs the moment the winds pick up. These will be the most concerning, but remember that we have buried windslabs that may be triggerable in steep convex areas.
This new snow is warm and quick to bond with itself.
Tomorrow will see broken skies with flurries rolling through for most of the day. Its hard to nail down the accumulation with "flurries", but if it is like today was, they may add up to another 10cm. Temperatures will warm up as the day goes on with a high of about -6 expected. The winds will be the thing to watch. They are expected to increase during the day with speeds ranging from 20km/hr to 40 at ridgeline. Consistently from the SW. It feels like a spring pattern right now with convective cells rolling through. These are notoriously difficult to forecast snow amounts for. We'll just have to wait and see how it unfolds.
Lots of loose dry avalanches today. Mostly out of cliff terrain and up to sz1.5. While not witnessed, we do expect steep gullies had a sluffing cycle.
Well, it seems our weather man was suffering from dyscalculia yesterday. We were expecting 15cm, but got up to 51cm on Thursday night. This sits on a variety of old surfaces that will be slow to bond with the new snow. The most interesting (and nerve racking) thing about this new snow is how easily it wants to settle and bond with itself. Within an hour we saw it shift from loose dry avalanches to a more cohesive, almost slab character. It will take VERY little input for this to become a slab problem.
