Avalanches can be most likely triggered in areas where recent snow has stiffened into a slab over a slippery underlying crust.
New snow has been blown into touchy wind slabs in lee and cross loaded features. Use caution in wind affected features and monitor for stiff snow, drum-like sounds and/or shooting cracks.
A number of buried weak layers remain possible to trigger. These layers appear to be most problematic in upper treeline and alpine elevations, in shallow, variable, rocky start zones.
A few new small natural and human triggered wind slab and loose dry avalanches have been reported in the region.
Larger avalanches on more deeply buried persistent week layers were reported last week during a warm spell, like this one in the Telkwa area last Friday. These are good reminders that although conditions may have improved, buried weak layers still exist, with potential to produce large avalanches.
If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a Mountain Information Network report.
Ongoing snowfall over recent days has accumulated 40-50 cm of storm snow over crusty surfaces from the warming event on January 25th. Some of this new snow has been blown into wind slabs that can be easily triggered on the slippery crust.
The mid and lower snowpack continues to bond and stabilize while a number of buried weak layers remain a concern and have produced a number of large recent avalanches.
Thursday night
5-10 cm of new snow. Ridge wind 50-60 km/h from the south. Temperature -4 C.
Friday
5-10 cm of new snow, with higher amounts north of Hazelton. Ridge wind 20-30 km/h from the southwest. Temperature -3 C.
Saturday5 cm of new snow. Ridge wind 30-40 km/h. Temperature -2 C.
SundayClearing. Ridge wind 40-50 km/h from the west. Temperature -2 C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
