Northwest Inland

The load over the deep persistent slab problem in parts of the region has reached a critical level. Triggering a full depth of snowpack avalanche is possible. A very cautious and disciplined approach to terrain selection is recommended.

Moderate -

TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, wind light north, alpine temperature -11WEDNESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, wind light southeast, alpine temperatures -10THURSDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, wind light southeast, alpine temperature -10 More details can be found on theMountain Weather Forecast.

There were several skier, snowmobile and naturally triggered avalanches to report near Smithers on Sunday. One of these avalanches in the Microwave area involved the full depth of the snowpack and resulted in a full burial. Click here for a description and images of the incident on Facebook. It is well worth a read. Another report in the Ashman area shows a skier triggered size 2 avalanche running on surface hoar at the storm snow and old snow interface in a sheltered area at tree line. Natural avalanches are reported to be full depth of the snowpack to size 3.5 in the alpine and at tree line.

A series of snowfalls last week accumulated 40-80 cm of storm snow, which now sits above a widespread rain crust up to about 1300 m. At tree line and above, the storm snow is settling and/or being redistributed into new wind slabs. Below, several buried surface hoar layers can be found, between 50-100 cm deep. Before the storm, these layers had been yielding moderate to hard results in snowpack tests. A generally stiff mid pack sits above weak sugary snow near the ground. The new load sitting on top has reached a critical level and woken up a deep persistent slab problem in many parts of the region. The consequences of triggering an avalanche on this layer are high. This is a good time to be very cautious and disciplined with terrain choices.