Ohau — Bollettino valanghe

Ohau Ski Patrol reported one small wind slab avalanche from a ski cut at 1880m on a south aspect on the 12th of August. About the Divide: Rain, heavy at times with snow to 2000 metres, easing to showers in the morning and clearing at night. Elsewhere: the odd shower, clearing to fine in the afternoon.Wind at 1000 metres: Northwesterly 50 km/h but gale 80 km/h in exposed places, easing to 35 km/h but 55 km/h in exposed places before dawn, and dying out at night.Wind at 2000 metres: Gale northwesterly 75 km/h, easing to 50 km/h in the morning, and dying out in the evening.Freezing level: 2400 metres, but 2000 metres about the Divide, becoming 2000 metres elsewhere in the afternoon. New snow at higher elevations and moist snow at lower elevations should make for soft travel conditions with minimal sliding hazard.

Roughly 5-10cm of new snow has fallen above 1700m around Ohau Ski Area on Wednesday, with an estimated 10-15cm in the northern part of the forecast area. Below 1700m, this fell as rain. The previous snow surface was already moist up to approximately 2000m, with some dry snow left on shady aspects above 2100m. 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.