Searching for dry snow after the warmup will steer you toward terrain where persistent slabs remain a concern. Keep up the conservative terrain selection on a day of snowpack reassessment.
The 80 - 130 cm-deep January crust has produced numerous recent avalanches and remains a concern in areas where strong surface crusts are absent. Smaller avalanches may also step down.
Explosives in the Fernie area Saturday yielded persistent slabs in the size 2 - 2.5 range with crowns 100 cm deep.
We have an initial report of a natural size 3 in the Little Sand area on Friday, likely another persistent slab.
The field team saw a bunch of fresh persistent slabs in Corbin Thursday.
These avalanches fit a recent pattern of heightened persistent slab activity on a range of aspects, mainly in the alpine.
A natural size 3 deep persistent slab was also seen Wednesday.
A melt-freeze crust or moist snow likely makes up the surface on solar aspects and on all aspects below about 1700 m. This crust tops the upper part of 30 to 60 cm of snow from last week that was redistributed by variable wind in alpine. About half of this snow overlies a crust formed early in the storm. It otherwise overlies faceted snow.
A weak layer of preserved surface hoar or facets from late January is buried 80 to 130 cm deep. This weak layer was active during the warmup and remains a concern where strong surface crusts haven't formed. The lower snowpack is generally well-settled, however at least one deep persistent slab ran naturally during the warmup.
Sunday Night
Becoming cloudy. 5 - 30 km/h northeast ridgetop wind, increasing. Freezing level falling from 3000 m to 1600 m.
Monday
Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing less than 5 cm of new snow above 1500 m, easing overnight. 20 - 30 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Freezing level 1600 m. Treeline temperature around -2 °C.
Tuesday
A mix of sun and cloud with cloud increasing. 5 - 15 km/h southwest ridgetop wind, closer to 30 km/h in alpine, increasing. Freezing level 1700 m. Treeline temperature around -1 °C.
Wednesday
A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and cloud decreasing. 15 - 25 km/h southwest ridgetop wind, easing. Freezing level 1800 m. Treeline temperature around 0 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
