Expect newly formed reactive wind slabs predominately on south aspect terrain.
Adopt a strategy that chooses well-supported ridgetop areas, and identifies and avoids wind slabs.
This week's storm snow totals 40 cm in the alpine. Northwesterly winds are redistributing available snow into fresh wind slabs in lee south aspect terrain. Seek out sheltered terrain where you can avoid wind slabs and find great riding.
On Wednesday, we received a MIN report of a skier accidental avalanche from Nak Bowl. The avalanche happened when skiing over a convexity and likely released on a crust below the storm snow. A natural size 2.5 wind slab avalanche was also reported from Nak Peak area. This avalanche is suspected to have stepped down to deeper layers. Several loose avalanches were observed up to size 2 on south aspects from solar input and elevated freezing levels.
On Tuesday, several, size 1, natural loose dry avalanches were reported from within the storm snow.
Thank you for all the MINs, please continue to share any observations or photos on the Mountain Information Network.
The past week's storm delivered to this region 30 to 40 cm of new low-density snow. In the alpine and at the treeline elevations storm snow has and continues to be redistributed by a moderate northeast wind. Expect on lee aspect terrain to find pockets of windslab up to 80 cm in depth that overlies a stiff melt-freeze crust.
Generally, the mid and lower snowpack is well-settled. Weak layers exist within the mid and lower snowpack but the thick crusts sitting above them make triggering avalanches on these layers unlikely.
Snowpack depths are 150 to 200 cm at treeline and taper rapidly below 1500 m.
Friday Night
Cloudy with some clearing. Northwest winds 15 km/h gusting to 30 km/h. 1500m temperature -4 °C. Freezing levels descend to 600 m.
Saturday
Sunny with some cloudy periods. Northeast winds 30 km/h gusting to 50 km/h. 1500 m temperature -8 °C. Freezing levels 700 m descending to 0 m in the afternoon.
SundaySunny and clear. Northeast winds 10 km/h gusting to 25 km/h. 1500m temperatures -8 °C. Freezing levels of 0 m.
MondaySunny and clear. Northeast winds 10 km/h gusting to 30 km/h. 1500m temperatures -12 °C. Freezing level 0 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
