Remote triggers and wide propagations have surprised riders this week. Keep it conservative and resist venturing into consequential terrain.
Persistent weak layers have been reactive in recent days, with remote triggers and wide propagations. Cooler weather may improve things but don't let your guard down. The consequences of triggering an avalanche on these layers is high.
Large, scary persistent slab avalanche activity has been reported daily this week. Between Wednesday and Friday, naturals continued to be reported size 2-3 and remotely-triggered slabs (triggered by riders from hundreds of meters away) size 2-2.5. These slabs are failing on a layer of surface hoar buried 50 to 90 cm deep. They have been observed at alpine and treeline elevations.
A widespread surface crust exists on most aspects and elevations.
50 to 60 cm of settled snow sits over a weak layer of facets, surface hoar and sun crust buried in mid February. Numerous large natural and remote-triggered avalanches have failed on this layer throughout the region this week.
Another weak facet/crust/surface hoar layer, from late January, is buried 40 to 80 cm deep. This layer has been the culprit for many very large natural, remote and human-triggered avalanches near Whistler in recent days.
Saturday night
Partly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2°C. Freezing level dropping to 1000 m.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with a trace of snow. <10 km/h variable ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level 1800 m.
Monday
Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h north ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2°C. Freezing level 1600 m.
Monday
A mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2°C. Freezing level 1600 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
