Northwest Coastal

Look for signs of instability and assess the bond between new snow and the old surface as you move through terrain.

Be ready to back off if there's a weak bond between new snow and the old surface. 

There have been several reports of windslab avalanches up to size 2 at treeline and alpine elevations.

Persistent slab avalanches on the February weak layer have tapered off since earlier this week.

20-30 cm of new snow is being redistributed by southerly winds. This new snow fell on a widespread layer of large surface hoar crystals, which sits on a crust on solar aspects and at low elevations.

A layer of facets, surface hoar and/or a crust from mid-February are buried 50 to 100 cm deep. This layer produced large natural and human-triggered avalanches earlier this week.

The remainder of the snowpack is well consolidated with no concerns at this time.

Monday Night

Cloudy with 5 cm of snow. 30 to 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.

Tuesday

Mostly cloudy. 20 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.

Wednesday

Partly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -7 °C. Freezing level 700 m.

Thursday

Partly cloudy. 10 - 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C. Freezing level 700 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be aware of the potential for larger than expected storm slabs due to buried surface hoar.
• Use small, low consequence slopes to test the bond of the new snow.
• Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.