South Rockies

New snow arrives with strong wind, be careful when transitioning into wind affected terrain.

Thurs: No new avalanches were reported, but snowpack tests done by our field team east of Elkford suggest that the persistent weak layer is still triggerable by humans.

Looking forward: Avalanches on buried weak layers may be difficult to trigger, but if one is triggered, it is likely to be large and destructive.

New snow falls on a variety of surfaces.

Below 1900 m, and on solar aspects, a surface crust overlays up to 10 cm of snow that sits on a widespread melt-freeze crust.

At treeline and above, the new snow falls on 5 to 10 cm of snow that has been redistributed by predominantly southwest wind.

The main feature of the region's overall shallow snowpack is a persistent weak layer of surface hoar or facets from late January now buried 40 to 80 cm deep. This layer was the cause of several avalanches last week.

Sunday Night

Partly cloudy, with up to 10 cm of snow. 25 to 55 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level falling to valley bottom.

Monday

Mainly cloudy, with up to 7 cm of snow, concentrated in the south of the region. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.

Tuesday

Mainly cloudy, with up to 2 cm new snow. 10 to 25 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.

Wednesday

Mainly cloudy, with a chance of flurries. 5 to 15 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid steep, rocky, and wind-affected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
• Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.