Deeper pockets of wind-transported snow can be found at higher elevations as storm snow continues to settle. Seek areas where the terrain is broken up into smaller features.
A thin snowpack has yet to cover early-season hazards.
The snow that came with Tuesday's storm arrived with the variable wind. Friday will see an uptake in wind. This will deposite snow in the immediate lee and on cross-loaded terrain features.
Many small loose dry avalanches have been reported throughout the area. There have been few people reporting any observations so if you head out to the backcountry, please consider posting in the MIN and help strengthen our information gathering.
During Tuesday's storm, approximately 40 cm of light snow fell Tuesday evening. Although it has been relatively calm since the storm, the storm brought with it winds and has left alpine and treeline areas with pockets of heavily deposited snow. At higher elevations, the new snow and new wind slabs cover previous wind-affected snow. In more sheltered areas it buried a 2 to 5 mm surface hoar layer which is now buried. Further down in the snowpack there are reports of a melt-freeze crust. These layers
At around 1000 m the snowpack is reach depths between 70 cm. Lower treeline and below treeline elevation are still below the threshold for avalanches.
Thursday Night
Mostly clear, no accumulation, winds southwest light to 20 km/h, temperature -5 C at 500 m.
Friday
Cloudy with sunny cloudy periods, 5 to 10 cm accumulation in the evening, winds southeast 15 km/h, 0 C at sea level.
Saturday
Cloudy, 3 to 7 cm accumulation early morning, winds southeast 15 to 25 km/h, temperatures 0 to -5 to 0 C at sea level.
Sunday
Mostly sunny, no accumulation, winds east 10 to 30 km/h, 0 C at 1500 m and 0 C at sea level due to temperature inversion.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
