Ohau — Boletín de aludes

One small wind slab avalanche was observed at Ohau ski area on August 10th on a northeast aspect at around 1950m. Several small natural and ski cut loose wet avalanches also ran on the 9th at Ohau ski area below 1650m on northeast through to southeast facing slopes. Cloudy periods. Rain developing in the morning, more persistent and heavier from the afternoon. Snow lowering to 2000 metres.Wind at 1000 metres: Northerly 40 km/h, rising to gale 70 km/h in the morning.Wind at 2000 metres: Northerly gale 65 km/h, rising to severe gale 90 km/h in exposed places in the morning.Freezing level: 1800 metres, lifting to 2300 metres in the afternoon. Expect melt-freeze crusts on Wednesday morning, and strong winds may scour exposed areas to slick crusts at high elevation. Take an ice axe and crampons for travel above the snowline.

An estimated 20cm of new snow fell in the northern part of the forecast region over the weekend, with roughly 15cm falling near Ohau ski area. This new snow is probably still dry above around 2100m on shady aspects, but it will be settling quickly. On sunny slopes, or below around 2000m in the shade, the snow became moist during Monday and Tuesday and will be capped with a melt-freeze crust on Wednesday morning. The lower pack was a mix of melt freeze crusts on sunny slopes, windscoured crusts in exposed areas, and drifts of firm, windpressed snow. With a thin snowpack in places and some cold nights, faceting has been observed in the lower pack, but so far we're not seeing any weak layers that are causing problems.