Fresh snow sits over unstable surfaces, creating dangerous avalanche conditions. Stick to simple, low angle terrain and avoid overhead hazard.
Fresh storm slabs will likely remain reactive throughout the weekend. They can be most easily triggered in wind-loaded terrain features and where they sit poorly bonded to a crust or weak grains.
Observations have been limited during the storm. On Friday storm slabs were reported size 1-1.5. They were triggered naturally, by skiers, explosives and vehicles. Some were triggered remotely or sympathetically.
Storm slab size will increase as snowfall continues overnight.
Light snowfall continues. 30 to 50 cm of new snow has accumulated since Thursday night. Near ridgetops, moderate to strong southwest wind has loaded new snow into leeward terrain features. The new snow is not expected to bond well to underlying surfaces including a hard crust, facets and/or surface hoar.
The mid and lower snowpack is well-settled and dense with no layers of concern.
Friday night
Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature dropping from -3 to -10 °C. Freezing level dropping from 1000 m to valley bottom.
Saturday
Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Sunday
Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -11 °C.
Monday
5 to 10 cm of snow overnight then a mix of sun and cloud. 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -13 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
