The avalanche hazard will start to rise on Thursday, and peak on Friday as we receive more new snow, rising temperatures, and strong wind!
Isolated soft slabs can be found in the Alpine and exposed areas of Treeline. The new storm snow overlies a previous facetted (sugary snow) interface, which might take some time to bond. Expect avalanche activity to peak on Friday.
The forecast for Thursday is 15cm of new snow with mod southerly winds and a mild rise in temperature. Another 15 is expected to fall Thursday night into Friday, with strong southerly winds and a significant rise in temperature. On Saturday the snow eases off, with mild flurries, then drying conditions as a high pressure starts to move over us.
~35cm of new storm snow overlies colder facetted snow in sheltered locations. In exposed areas in the Alpine and at Treeline, moderate winds formed soft slabs along ridge crests and unprotected terrain features. The Dec 1 crust is buried 80-130cm, with faceted snow above and below it (especially in shallow areas).
Several avalanches to size 3 were observed in the steep paths of Macdonald and Tupper on Tuesday morning. These were triggered by mod-strong southerly wind. Frequent flyer was reported to have avalanched on Monday night to size 2.5.
