Early season hazards will be abundant at lower elevations, where the snowpack is barely overcoming ground roughness. If you do venture into higher elevations, watch for pockets of wind slab around ribs and ridges. If triggered, wind slabs have the potential to 'step down' to the weak lower snowpack, creating larger than expected avalanches.
Watch for pockets of wind slabs on the lee side of ridges or ribs.
With the sugary, faceted, and weak snowpack wind slabs could step down to the lower snowpack, resulting in larger than expected avalanches.
No new avalanche reports. Keep sharing your observations via the MIN; it helps strengthen our information gathering.
In deeper zones at 1900 m the snowpack is around 100-130 cm, which is low for the middle of December, and it has a weak structure.
Surface: Boot top powder in deep areas. Same old crusts, facets, and rocks on wind-scoured slopes. Wind slab pockets lee of ridges.Upper-pack: Below the fresh snow is well-developed surface hoar in sheltered areas. The upper part of the snowpack is generally low density and faceting (aka weak).Mid-pack: maybe a crust or two, with a layer of soft facets above. This is likely the primary weak layer.Lower-pack: facets and depth hoar (aka not strong).
Monday night
Cloudy with clear periods. Alpine temperatures drop to a low of -4 °C. Ridge wind northwest 10-20 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.
Tuesday
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -1 °C. Ridge wind north 5-15 km/h. Freezing level rises to 1700 metres.
WednesdaySunny with cloudy periods. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -2 °C. Ridge wind north 25 km/h gusting to 55 km/h. Freezing level rising to 1500 metres.
ThursdaySunny with cloudy periods. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -3 °C. Ridge wind north 30 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
