Choose terrain sheltered from the wind to find the best riding and the lowest avalanche hazard. Moderate snowfall should refresh the riding, but back off if you see shooting cracks or other signs of instability.
New snow and ongoing moderate to strong southerly winds continue to form reactive wind slabs in exposed terrain. These slabs may overlie a weak interface and could remain reactive longer than normal.
Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy. 5-10 cm of snow expected. Strong to extreme south wind. Treeline high around -4 °C.
Friday: Mostly cloudy. 0-5 cm of snow expected. Moderate to strong south wind in the morning, becoming southest by the afternoon. Freezing level rising to around 500 m.
Saturday: Partly cloudy. Possible trace of snow expected. Light west wind becoming moderate southwest in the afternoon. Treeline high around -7 °C.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. 0-5 cm of snow expected. Moderate south wind trending to southwest at higher elevations. Treeline high around -7 °C.
With new snow and ongoing moderate to strong south through southwests wind and mild temperatures, wind slabs are expected to remain reactive to human triggering on Friday.
On Tuesday, the Avalanche Canada field team was able to ski cut reactive wind slabs on steep north aspects at upper treeline. Their MIN report has a great photo of a skier triggered avalanche on a small test slope.
Up to 20 cm of new snow is forecasted to fall overnight Thursday and through the day on Friday. Strong south winds will accompany this snow, continuing to build reactive slabs in lee features. This new snow overlies 30-50cm of rapidly settling storm snow that fell on very firm surfaces in White Pass.
In open, wind exposed terrain at treeline, a spotty rime crust was reported on Wednesday. Riding quality has been improving since the extreme wind event but thinly buried hazards still exist in exposed areas. These hazards include rocks and waves of sastrugi.
Check out here and here for the two most recent Mountain Information Network (MIN) posts from the field team for more details on recent the snow conditions.
