Ice climbers be aware for overhead avalanche hazard and choose conservative routes. For you skiers out there, there is just not enough snow yet.
An additional 10-15cm snow fell on Monday with moderate to strong SW winds. Wind slabs in lee and cross-loaded terrain are found in Alpine features. These slabs are resting on a crust from a recent warm spell. Slabs won't bond well to this crust layer.
Winds will continue to load gully features. Avoid steep, confined terrain. Expect these to run far.
No new avalanches have been reported on Tuesday. There is likely some activity with the most recent snow and continued strong winds.
Of note is the numerous avalanches that occurred over the weekend, both naturally and controlled with explosives. Most of these were noted on N and E aspects up to size 2.
A fatal avalanche occurred on Saturday involving ice climbers on the Spray Road. A size 2.0 naturally trigged slab avalanche failed in alpine terrain, ran over a cliff and caught two people in a terrain trap. Ice climbers should take extra caution on route selection for overhead avalanche hazard.
We now have a persistent weak layer (Nov 10) that is down about 20-40cm in the alpine, 10cm at treeline. Very little is known about this Nov 10th temperature crust, but it appears to be spotty aspect wise, very reactive(slippery) and estimated to be up to 2400m. Wind slabs are the theme for this early season. We have had 2 snow events with strong winds in the last 5 days:
Saturday: 15-20cm with extreme winds that created wind slabs in a very short period of time. This is the cause for all of the avalanches over last weekend.
Monday/Tuesday: 10-15cm with strong SW winds have created another wind slab problem. Strong winds will continue until Wednesday morning moving snow around some more.
Overall snowpack depth and character is largely unknown as it is early season. From what we have seen and heard, total snow depth varies from 20-60cm. Coverage is very inconsistent with LOTS of hidden hazards.
Strong SW winds will continue through Tuesday night until Wednesday morning and then diminish to 30km/h from the West. Wednesday will see a daytime alpine high temp of -5c with flurries developing in the late afternoon with up to 5cm of snow.
ThursdayMainly sunny on Thursday with 40-60km/hr West winds and freezing levels rising to 1500m. Temperatures will begin to rise during the late afternoon.
FridayStay tuned for Friday as a warming trend is looking likely.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
