Another pulse of snow could keep the hazard rating at High for tomorrow. Watch new snow amounts carefully and avoid alpine avalanche slopes.
New slabs are forming as we speak. With lots of available snow and increasing winds, expect these slabs to become more widespread in the next day or so.
The new load may bring this layer back to life.
With more incoming snow, expect loose dry avalanches to start again. They may trigger slopes below.
As expected, today had many avalanches. Most noteworthy was a cornice triggered sz3 on Snow Peak (Burstall pass area). NE aspect, alpine start zone, ran to valley bottom. Several other windslabs were reported, all in the sz2 range and on E aspects. Some failed on reloaded bed surfaces.
Last night and this morning we received more snow than expected. The northern part of the region got up to 45cm, the central (Tent Ridge area) had 15, and the southern part had about 20cm. With the warmer temperatures and solar input, all areas saw rapid settlement. As a general summary, we have 30-45cm over the recent crust. The new snow has already formed slabs as soon as the trees open up. Settlement is likely adding to the slabs. There was also some cracking while breaking trail above treeline. Low elevation (200m and below) and solar aspects had moist snow appear as soon as the sun came out.
We'll see another 10cm of snow come in overnight tonight. During the brief but intense storm, winds will be variable in direction and gusty in nature. Summit height winds will be a bit more settled at the 30-40km/hr mark and westerly. Temperatures will be about -8 for a high. Despite the cloud, expect there to be strong solar component to our warming.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
