MAIN RANGE NSW:
RECENT OBSERVATIONS
UPDATED: 7th / AUG /2018

REPORT CONFIDENCE: Poor
CURRENT UNTIL: 10th / Aug / 2018

OBSERVATION SUMMARY

TREND: IMPROVING / ONGOING / DETERIORATING

RECENT OBSERVATION

SERVERe WEATHER WARNING:
UPGRADED WEDNESDAY 8TH

HIGH AVALANCHE DANGER.EXPECTING NATURAL SLIDES TO OCCUR WITH WARMING EVENT OVER THE NEXT 12HRS.

Wednesday

Some field observation summaries.

Wednesday 7:30am: Nothing to drastic to report from yesterday....However there was soft slab development in immediate lees, easily triggered, crowns 30 to 40cm deep, propagating to full features. Jacob Fisher @ Thredbo. If I were to be travelling in the back country I'd be wary of terrain traps such as the steep slopes often found above creeks, especially if the signs of loading were present I.e cornice formation. Jacob

Tueday 3:30pm. We have since had 10cm of graupel and snow land on the surface ice layer on Monday and then a further 10-20cm of snow on top of that last night.. Obviously much more on the lee slopes. Lots of lemons, ice layer, wind , graupel, new snow.
We had a large crack shoot away from her skis on a convex roll into a 30 degree lee slope. I did several hand shear tests all with the same easy result 30cm down on the graupel and there was also a layer of what appeared to be surface hoar (inconclusive) 10cm down that I would also say was an easy result.

In view of all this we call the avi risk considerable on lee slopes over 30 degrees above treeline and moderate below treeline. In saying this the avi risk does not really diminish below treeline in the current conditions, only the consequences. Wind slabs are evident from NE to SE aspects. I can only assume the higher elevations and ridges have been heavily wind affected and little snow will have settled there. Other than that the skiing was awesome inbounds but I would be super carefull BC for the next 24-48 hrs. Dave

Tuesday 3:30pm Probably not really worth venturing too far atm, strong winds and low vis continuing till Thursday (ish) Just came back from a few lines east of West Bowl alt 1620 to 1720 on a small trees spur. 20 -30 deg, nothing to report. Boot to knee deep. Above unprotected tree line still ice and hard going in the wind. Stick to the protected treed slopes, great snow. Jake

TUESDAY

The series of cold fronts have finally arrived and done their magic overnight on the NSW Main Range. Snowfalls down to 1000m over night have transformed the mountains. 20cm of new snow has occurred overnight and more is on the way moving froward. The danger rating has been elevated and will stay this way for the week due to snowfalls and winds in the area.

OUTLOOK

With the temperatures staying cold and the winds around the mountains there will be Wind Slab issues on Lee to the SW slopes above and below treeline. We are expecting 60-80cm of snow in the next 5 days and this will be more like 1.5m on the lee slops so beware of wind slab on all lee aspects. We will continue to monitor the bond strength of this new snow on the existing wet surface it fell on.

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