Storm snow continues to accumulate and produce dangerous avalanche conditions.
Avoid avalanche terrain during periods of heavy loading from snow and/or wind.
Ongoing snow and wind continue to form fresh, reactive slabs. Anticipate slabs to be most reactive on wind-affected slopes or areas that receive greater amounts of snow than forecast.
Reports from Monday suggest that the recent storm snow was reactive to skier traffic, either as loose dry avalanches or soft storm slabs. Producing avalanches up to size 2.
One natural wind slab avalanche, along with a few explosive-triggered avalanches were reported on Sunday, up to size 3, in steep terrain near ridge crests.
With continued snow and wind, we anticipate both natural and rider-triggered avalanches to become more likely on Wednesday.
Ongoing snow and wind continue to form widespread storm and wind slabs. Snowfall is forecast to be heaviest overnight in areas east of Prince George (around the Torpy and Kakwa regions).
Approximately 50 to 75 cm below the surface, a layer of weak, sugary facets buried in February has been found in some areas. It has not produced many reported avalanches, but it is continuing to react in snowpack tests, and ongoing snowfall is increasing the load on this layer.
80 to 120 cm below the surface is a crust that was buried in early February.
The remainder of the snowpack is consolidated with no layers of concern.
Tuesday Night
Cloudy. 5 to 20 cm of snow, with the higher values expected in the areas around Torphy and Kakwa. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 8 cm of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 15 to 20 cm of snow. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
