Moderate slope angles with thick, consistent snowpack remain your best defense against triggering storm slabs or the deeper, more destructive persistent weak layer below.
A layer of facets over a crust is buried 80 to 150cm, and has recently produced very large avalanches. It appears to be most reactive in areas closer to the coast.
Recent incremental storm snow has accumulated up to 25 cm of new snow over various old surfaces: wind-pressed in exposed terrain, softer settling snow in sheltered terrain and a sun crust on solar-facing slopes.
No new avalanche activity has been reported.
We suspect that recently accumulated storm snow may be reactive to human triggering especially where it has been wind-affected.
Roughly 20 cm of new storm snow has further buried old wind affected surfaces in exposed terrain and adds to softer snow found in sheltered areas or faceted northerly aspects.
On sun exposed slopes a sun crust can be found below the most recent storm snow.
A persistent weak layer of facets and crust is buried 80 to 150 cm deep, extending up to about 1400 m. The greatest concern for triggering comes from large loads, such as cornice falls, or from human triggering in areas where the snowpack transitions from thin to thick.
Monday Night
Mostly cloudy. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
