Before this storm, the snowpack was emaciated and weak - picture a stray kitten, out in the cold.
Now imagine this kitten sneaks into your house, and gorges itself on a turkey cooling on the counter - that's the state of our current snowpack.
Best to resist the urge to cuddle the little critter, or it might just throw up on you - give it some time to settle.
There are three persistent weak layers buried in the mid-upper snowpack. All three of these layers are still reacting in the easy/moderate range in snowpack tests around treeline.
Storm slabs formed rapidly on Saturday. These will require several days to settle and stabilize. Avoid avalanche terrain that has not been completely cleaned out by recent avalanche activity.
An avalanche cycle began Friday, and is ongoing at publishing time. Avalanche activity has been widespread, with our detection network signaling up to an avalanche per minute in the highway corridor at times. These avalanches have predominantly been in the size 2-3 range.
Up to 45cm of new snow sits on a generally weak and facetted snowpack.
Prior to this storm the alpine snowpack was particularly thin and variable, with shallow areas facetted and unconsolidated from the snow surface to the ground.
There are several persistent weak layers buried, which are most prevalent at and near treeline. The recently buried Dec 16 surface hoar (up to 10mm) is now down ~50cm. The Dec 5 surface hoar layer is down ~70cm. The Nov. 17th surface hoar/suncrust/facet layer is down ~100cm and is the suspected failure plane for last weeks whumphing, as well as some large avalanches in neighboring areas.
Sunday we will get a brief break between fronts. Scattered flurries will give up to 4cm, the alpine high will reach -4°C, and ridge wind will be light gusting moderate from the SW.
Monday will bring another wave of heavy snowfall. With up to 25cm forecast to fall throughout the day, high alpine winds, and freezing levels spiking to 1800m.
Tuesday will remain unsettled, with cloudy skies, scattered flurries and cooling temps.
