Loose Dry
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- Probabilità
- Possible
- Dimensione
- 1
A cycle of loose wet avalanching has already taken place. Small loose wet avalanches are possible through the warmth of the afternoon on steep sunny slopes.
Afternoons will warm up after a cold start. This may rise the likelihood of small loose wet avalanching in steep solar terrain.
A small avalanche could have nasty consequences with a minefield of shallowly buried rocks about.
A cycle of loose wet avalanching has already taken place. Small loose wet avalanches are possible through the warmth of the afternoon on steep sunny slopes.
Several pulses of SE snow and wind have come through over the first half of the week. Several layers of windslab may be present as well as a buried rime crust. We suspect a reasonable bond of any layers but the snowpack is generally unobserved in the Ohau back country. I would be taking my time and having a look at the structure and strength of recent snowfall, as well as what might lie in the runout, ie, rocks!
Ohau ski patrol report several small loose wet avalanches, size 1, on E aspects.
Approximately 90cm of new snow has fallen in the Ohau area over the last 5 days above 1800m, tapering to around 45cm at 1500m. The stormy period finished with up to 30cm of new snow on Wednesday with moderate SE winds. Windslab development will be mostly restricted to higher elevation slopes lee to the recent SE winds. Many slopes are only just getting to threshold for avalanching and many rocks will be lurking. A rime crust is now buried around 20cm below surface, but the depth is variable depending on local wind effect. Direct solar slopes will have some degree of melt freeze crust after a clear night.
Fine and frosty with afternoon freezing levels rising to 1700m.
Probably not much of sliding hazard at present, though there maybe firm snow exposed at ridgelines and solar slopes will have a melt freeze crust.
Moderate
New Zealand Avalanche Advisory (NZ Mountain Safety Council)