Choose conservative terrain, as the likelihood of triggering large avalanches remains high.
It remains possible that humans could trigger surface hoar and/or faceted grains that were buried mid-February, especially at high elevations where a thick crust doesn't exist above it.
Riders could trigger large avalanches where the 50 to 80 cm of recent snow is slow to bond to underlying layers of surface hoar and/or a hard crust. Slabs may also be touchy in immediate lee terrain features from new snow and strong wind.
60 to 90 cm of storm snow has accumulated since Saturday. All this snow sits on a hard melt-freeze crust found everywhere except north-facing slopes above 1600 m. There may also be isolated surface hoar crystals above the crust in wind-sheltered terrain around treeline. Southwest wind may form deeper and touchier deposits in lee terrain features at high elevations.
A weak layer of surface hoar and/or faceted grains buried mid-February is around 70 to 120 cm deep.
The lower snowpack is well-settled.
Two large (size 2) naturally triggered persistent slab avalanches were observed in the alpine near Valemount on Tuesday. These occurred on east aspects, were 100 cm deep, and failed on the buried weak layer noted in the snowpack summary.
Throughout the week riders and explosives continued to trigger small to large (size 1-3) storm slab avalanches within the recent storm snow. Most occurred on north to east aspects between 1900 and 2100 m, with depths ranging from 50 to 80 cm.
Thursday Night
Cloudy with 2 to 5 cm of snow. 10 to 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Friday
Mix of sun and cloud with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 10 to 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with 2 to 5 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with 2 to 5 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
