Pacific Systems are set to bring some light precipitation our way through the weekend, and even more into next week...
The potential for a poor freeze, and possibly rain, may lead to a deterioration in the crusts BTL as early as Saturday.
Small 10-15 cm thick wind slabs were ski cut/triggered Thursday. Although small in size, these could be enough to send travelers tumbling down a face or couloir. Expect this problem to increase on Monday as new snow accumulates.
A breakdown of the crusts on steep solar slopes TL and below appears to have occurred Friday as the Sun came out. Watch the recovery carefully each night through the weekend and consider the potential impacts of heating in the form of Sun or rain.
Overcast skies Fri Pm may serve to limit the quality of the freeze. Saturday a cold front and associated convective cloud will bring flurries above about 1800m, possibly rain below. A good freeze can be expected Sun AM before a low pushes through in the afternoon. Again, light rain below about 1800m is possible. Weak freeze Mon AM with more precip.
Isolated thin wind slabs exist in the alpine : mostly noted in the immediate lee of features. Surface melt-freeze crusts exist on all aspects up to approx. 2300m and higher on solar aspects. On high elevation north aspects dry snow exists. The mid-pack is well settled but has several persistent layers consisting of crusts and/or facets.
In the alpine, a few 1.5 thin windslabs were ski cut/triggered in the region on Thursday. A fresh size 3 avalanche was observed on the main highway path on Mt. Stephen on Wednesday. This was likely serac triggered.
