Recent snow is refreshing the skiing in many areas but...the winds are making for tricky "hooky" skiing in open alpine terrain. Skier trigger-able windslabs are quickly building with the new snow and warm temps. Give the new snow a few days to settle.
The recent snow and strong winds are building windslabs in alpine terrain and isolated areas at treeline. Forecasters were observing cracking while travelling along ridgelines on Saturday.
Cornices are growing at this time with the new snow, strong winds and warm temps. If they fail, its likely they will trigger a windslabs or deep persistent slab on the underlying slopes.
There is a small chance the new load will overload the deep layers. We are expecting a significant rapid loading pulse early in the storm. Sparsely treed areas and thin crossloaded terrain are likely areas to cause trouble.
We may see a few more cm of snow fall overnight but the main pulse is done. On Sunday we are expecting to see the winds calm down early in the day but then build again up to moderate out of the west by the later afternoon. A mix of sun and cloud is forecast with temperatures in the -18c range early in the morning.
No new avalanches were observed or reported by skies were obscured most of the day.
15cm of snow has fallen over the past 24hrs at treeline and above. This new snow has been blown around by moderate to strong westerly winds building new windslabs at treeline and above. Forecasters did notice some cracking up to 20cm deep in treeline features and we do expect the windslabs to be deeper and more reactive in the alpine. Carefully evaluate these new windslabs especially in areas where they are overlying the temperature crust that developed on friday. Cornices are large and growing....
