Northwest Inland

Persistent slab avalanches remain possible to trigger. Watch for signs of instability such as whumpfing.

On Thursday a large (size 2.5) naturally triggered wind slab avalanche was reported near Ashman.

Whumpfing has been experienced by backcountry users in the Babines, Grizzly Plateau, and Hudson Bay Mountain recently. The whumpfing has been occurring mainly due to the surface hoar layers described in the snowpack summary.

Light amounts of recent new snow has been redistributed by primarily southerly winds. Southerly faces in the alpine are scoured down to the ground or an early-season crust. In most areas, two or more preserved surface hoar layers can be found buried between 35 cm and 80 cm deep. They appear to be most prominent at treeline and below but have been observed in some alpine locations as well.Snowpack depths at treeline are variable across the region with generally deeper amounts (~150cm) in the western part and shallower (~80cm) in the eastern part.The snow surface is likely moist or crusty up to treeline. Below 1100 m there is very little snow.

Saturday Night

Cloudy with 2-4 cm of snow, southwest wind 20-30 km/h, freezing level 1000m and treeline temperature -1 °C.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy with sunny breaks, westerly wind 10-25 km/h, high of -5 °C at treeline.

Mainly cloudy with 1-3 cm new snow, south and southwest wind 20-40 km/h, high of -4 °C at treeline.

Mostly cloudy with flurries, southeast wind 10-20 km/h, high of -3 °C at treeline.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Carefully assess open slopes and convex rolls where buried surface hoar may be preserved.
• Watch for wind-loaded pockets especially around ridgecrest and in extreme terrain.