Finding areas where there is no significant wind effect and/or lingering wind slab will lead you to the safest and most enjoyable travel.
Lingering hard wind slabs exist on alpine lee features. Potential failure planes are old weak facet layers or the Jan 30 layer of facets, sun crusts, and isolated surface hoar beneath the recent snow.
No new avalanches reported Thursday.
On Tuesday in the adjacent region of BYK, we investigated the Quartz skier accidental avalanche near Sunshine Village, where the start zone was 48° and the failure plane was an old layer of weak facets down 50 cm. The avalanche was triggered from a very shallow, faceted location and the crack propagated into the thicker snowpack nearby and released the avalanche. This is a classic avalanche release pattern.
25-30cm of settled snow from last week has been redistributed by the wind in exposed locations, burying the Jan 30 weak layer, and in isolated locations formed now what are aging wind slabs. Specific areas exposed to the wind may have strastrugi. The mid and lower snowpack is well settled, with tree-line snow depths ranging from 120 cm to 180 cm.
Thursday night: Cloudy with clear periods. Alpine temperature: Low -17 °C with an inversion. Ridge wind east: 10 km/h. Alpine temperature inversion.
Friday Mainly cloudy. Alpine temperature: High -14 °C. Light ridge wind.
Saturday Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Alpine temperature: Low -18 °C, High -15 °C. Ridge wind light to 15 km/h.
