Forecast gusty winds will be re-building the windslab problem tomorrow.
Keep an open mind for changing conditions as you travel.
Recent snow and forecast strong winds tomorrow will load lee slopes in wind-exposed terrain. Expect this problem to be most reactive in ridge top features. If triggered, these avalanches may travel farther and faster than expected on a buried crust.
15-50 cm of recent storm snow has been redistributed by strong SW winds creating wind slabs in exposed terrain. Expect challenging travel below treeline with frozen tree bombs and huge avalanche debris from last week's super storm.
Below the storm snow, a strong crust exists up into treeline. Another crust from early March is down 70-150 cm.
The Jan 26 surface hoar layer is now buried 150-210 cm deep. This layer is not a concern for human triggering with bridging crusts above.
The new snow and wind caused a small natural avalanche cycle up to size 2.5 through the highway corridor on Tuesday. A field team was also able to easily trigger several size 1 slabs from steep terrain at treeline.
A widespread, natural avalanche cycle occurred up to size 4.0 on Thursday and Friday of last week during the atmospheric river. Explosive avalanche control also produced results up to size 4.
Check out pics from the recent avalanche cycle in the MIN Reports.
A weak trough this weekend brings convective flurries and seasonal temps.
Tonight Trace of snow. Alpine low -6°C. Winds SW 20-50km/h. Freezing level (FZL) 800m.
Sat Flurries 5cm. High -3°C. Wind SW 20 gusting 70km/h. FZL 1700m
Sun Flurries 5cm. High -6°C. Wind SW 20 gusting 70km/h. FZL 1200m
Mon Flurries 4cm. High -11°C. Wind W 15-40km/h. FZL 700m.
