The Bottom Line:

10-15″ of new snow fell this week in the Lutak zone. Winds were mostly light, but in the most exposed parts of the alpine there was likely enough wind to create areas of recent wind slab. Test results from Thursday found the new snow is reactive and poorly bonded near treeline. You may find areas of sensitive wind slab on any wind-affected slopes. Any strong solar radiation will make these surface wind slabs more likely to trigger. Avoid any steep, wind loaded slopes especially near cliffs or terrain traps.

• Be on the lookout for reactive wind slabs, especially on exposed alpine slopes and beneath ridgelines.
• Blowing snow and cracking or collapsing in drifted snow are clear warning signs of the problem.
• Sticking to sheltered or wind-scoured areas can help avoid wind slabs. Also, fresh new loose snow could sluff and carry a rider over cliffs, and rocks or into a terrain trap.
• Manage your terrain appropriately and verify conditions as you travel.

Practice good group management, communication and decision making.

• Do not ski/ride on the same slope as another person/group.
• Travel one at a time or with enough spacing so that only one person is exposed to an avalanche path.
• Always keep eyes on exposed riding partners.

Continue to keep wide margins with cornices- Respect the power and trouble they can cause. They often break much further back than expected.

Unlikely to trigger but high consequence deep slab hazards remain in our snowpack. These weak layers are slowly healing, but smaller slides could possibly step down and wake this sleeping dragon.  Especially in steep, complex, or rocky terrain.

As spring continues and freeze-thaw conditions start to settle the snowpack, it will be tempting to step out towards some of the bigger objectives. But you should be asking yourself, is this really the snowpack you want to be stepping out onto? Poor structure remains in many areas, with deep persistent weak layers that have occasionally produced large, destructive avalanches over the last few months. As the snowpack warms up, some of these deep layers will come back to life.

There’s nothing wrong with pushing back plans for big spring descents to next year. For some of us, we have decided this is *not* the year to push it, given lingering deep layers that will be waking up again as the weather warms.

Layers still providing poor structure in specific areas:

• Facets below Jan 25 melt-freeze crust ~4-6ft (widespread, up to 4,000 ft)
• Feb 22nd buried surface hoar layer down ~3-5ft.
• Jan 10th buried surface hoar.
• At or near the ground are large, rotten facets– not to be forgotten about.

Lutak, March 26th, NE aspect 2675′- Snow pit revels weak snow down 150cm below the Jan 25th crust.