Lizard-Flathead

Isolated pockets of wind slab could still be triggered at higher elevations.

High

• The snowpack structure is generally well understood.

During recent explosive-control work, a few large (size 2 to 3) wind slab avalanches occurred in the Crowsnest area. While none of these avalnches propogated particualrly wide, they all ran very far (full path) on old firm, buried crusts.

Light snow on Friday will begin to bury a variety of old surfaces, including surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain and a sun crust on south-facing slopes.

Up to 50 cm of snow since Christmas continues to settle above a thin melt-freeze crust at elevations around 2000 m and below.

The mid and lower snowpack is characterized by multiple crusts, with moist snow persisting near the base in some areas.

Snow depths at treeline generally range from approximately 100 to 200 cm.

Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy. Trace amounts of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.

Friday
Cloudy. 2 to 5 cm of snow. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. .

Saturday
Cloudy. 5 to 15 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level rising to 1900 m.

Sunday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 15 cm of snow at treeline. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1900 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Carefully evaluate steep lines for wind slabs.
• Be careful with wind-loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and rollovers.