New snow and moderate winds may add to existing wind slab problems. Warming temperatures may increase their sensitivity to triggering.
Newly formed wind slabs could be found in exposed terrain on all aspects due to variable wind over the past few days. These slabs may be sensitive to rider traffic due to the weak layers underneath.
At the time of publishing, no new avalanches were reported in the past 7 days.
An average of 10 cm of recent storm snow, has fallen with variable wind, potentially forming wind slab on all aspects. In sheltered terrain this new snow may overlie soft, faceted snow or surface hoar. In exposed terrain it will overlie a sun crust or firm wind-affected snow.
In the Manning park area there has been less snow and significantly less wind.
At lower elevations a new crust is on or near the surface.
A weak layer from late January, buried 40 to 60 cm deep, is a hard crust in many areas but consists of facets or surface hoar on sheltered upper-elevation slopes.
A crust from December is buried 80 to 140 cm deep, with facets around it in shallow snowpack areas. Otherwise, the lower snowpack is strong and bonded.
Wednesday Night
Cloudy with up to 5 to 15 mm of mixed precipitation. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level falling to 1000 m.
Thursday
Cloudy with up to 10 mm of mixed precipitation. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level rising 1300 m.
Friday
Cloudy with up to 5 mm of mixed precipitation. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level 1800 m.
Saturday
Cloudy with up to 10 mm of mixed precipitation. 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level 2200 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
