Use caution in wind-affected areas on Monday as new snow and wind will form fresh wind slabs.
Expect new snow and wind to form fresh wind slabs on Monday. Older wind slabs that formed last week could also still be reactive to human triggering.
A layer of faceted grains near the base of the snowpack remains on the radar for areas of this region where the snowpack is shallow and where a hard melt-freeze crust formed around Christmas doesn't exist (Elkford and Flathead areas). Deep persistent slab avalanches have not been reported in the region for some time, however, the weak snowpack structure in these shallow areas may still be triggered with a heavy load.
No new avalanches were reported on Saturday. On Friday, several skier-triggered wind slab avalanches were reported in the Fernie area. They were size 1 to 2, occurring in both alpine and open forested terrain, as illustrated in MIN reports here, here, and here.
Wind slab avalanches will continue to be a problem on Monday with more snow and wind expected. Deep persistent slab avalanches should also be on your radar in the Elkford and Flathead areas.
Up to 15 cm of new snow is possible on Monday, which will fall above various layers, including sun crusts and hard wind-affected snow. Sheltered, shaded areas will likely have deeper soft snow from last week.
In the Lizard range specifically, the mid-pack is consolidated with a supportive 10 to 20 cm thick frozen crust buried 80 to 100 cm.
In the Elkford and Flathead areas, deeply buried weak layers are slowly gaining strength but are still a concern, especially in steep rocky terrain features where the snowpack is thin.
Sunday night
Cloudy, flurries start in the early morning with trace accumulations of snow, 50 to 70 km/h southwest wind, treeline temperatures around -4 ºC.
Monday
Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing 5 to 15 cm of snow, 40 to 60 km/h southwest wind, treeline temperatures around -4 °C with freezing level around 1300 m.
TuesdayMix of sun and cloud, isolated flurries with trace amounts of snow, 20 km/h northeast wind, treeline temperatures drop to -8 °C.
WednesdayMix of sun and cloud, no significant precipitation, 30 km/h west wind, treeline temperatures around -6 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
