Cooling temperatures are reducing the likelihood of triggering large persistent slab avalanches.
Avoid steep or convex terrain features with a shallow or thin-to-thick snowpack.
A crust with weak facets above is buried 80 to 180 cm deep. Steep or convex terrain features with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack at treeline and above are the most likely places to trigger this layer.
A skier triggered size 1 persistent slab avalanche was reported on a north aspect at treeline near Nelson on Thursday. It failed on a weak layer of surface hoar down 25 cm.
0 to 5 cm of recent snow overlies predominantly crusty surfaces.
A weak layer of surface hoar is down 30-60 cm in isolated, sheltered areas at treeline.
A widespread crust with sugary facets above is buried 80-180 cm deep. Steep or convex terrain features with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack at treeline and above are the most likely places to trigger this layer. However, when a thick surface crust is present, human triggering this layer is unlikely.
Friday night
Cloudy. 5 to 10 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1400 m.
Saturday
Cloudy with isolated flurries, 0 to 10 cm snow. 5 to 10 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1600 m.
Sunday
Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 20 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.
Monday
Mix of sun and cloud. 5 to 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1600 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
