Strong SW winds and a good pulse of new snow will increase the avalanche hazard. Be aware of changing conditions.
Strong SW winds are creating extensive fresh wind slabs in Alpine and Treeline terrain. These slabs will become increasing reactive with the incoming snow and continues strong winds.
A SW flow will bring mild temps, windy conditions and 10 to 15cm of new snow by Monday afternoon. Freezing levels will climb to 1900m.
Tuesday and Wednesday will also be snowy. Models disagree, but the region should receive 20 to 40cm by Wednesday evening.
Nothing new observed on Sunday, but a size 1.5 natural avalanche occurred off the SE corner of Little Tent Ridge on Saturday. This was a slab avalanche that ran into the valley floor and washed over some ski tracks. Forecasters also noted a couple of other size 1.5 wind slabs on east aspects in the past 48 hours.
Strong SW winds have redistributed a large amount of snow over the past 36 hours. Wind slabs up to 20cm thick were found at treeline today, and forecasters suspect this is more widespread in the alpine. A thin sun crust was also observed on solar aspects. The previous storm snow, and now these fresh wind slabs, predominantly sit on the Feb 19 interface, which is sun crust on solar aspects and hard wind slab almost everywhere else. Unfortunately, this layer provides a good sliding surface and will likely become more reactive as the SW winds continue and the snowfall amounts add up early in the week.
