North Columbia

Reactive wind slabs are building on lee slopes near ridgetops.

If you see more than 15 cm of new snow accumulating, the danger will be CONSIDERABLE at upper elevations.

On Wednesday, A skier accidentally triggered a small wind slab on a northeast-facing wind-loaded slope. Naturally triggered dry loose sluffing and several wind slabs up to size 2 were also observed in the region.

With more new snow and wind in the forecast, we expect wind slabs to remain reactive to human triggering on Friday.

Moderate

• We are uncertain about forecast snowfall amounts.

A new layer of surface hoar or sun crust may be getting buried by up to 20 cm of new snow forecast to fall overnight and through Friday. This may make new wind slabs formed by forecast southwesterly winds more reactive than normal.

Below that, 20 to 60 cm of recent snow is covering a melt-freeze crust that exists up to around 1900 m and on sunny aspects.

A layer of surface hoar/facets/crust from late January may exist buried 60 to 80 cm. This layer seems to have gone dormant, but lingering concern remains for northerly sheltered features at treeline.

The remaining snowpack is well settled with no layers of concern.

Thursday Night

Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.

Friday

Mix of sun and clouds. 5 to 15 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.

Saturday

Mix of sun and clouds. 4 to 10 cm of snow. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.

Sunday

Mostly sunny. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Stay off recently wind loaded slopes until they have had a chance to stabilize.
• Seek out sheltered terrain where new snow hasn't been affected by wind.
• Start on smaller terrain features and gather information before committing to bigger terrain.