Storm snow accumulations will continue throughout our region and will be accompanied by moderate southwest winds.
Reactive storm slabs should be expected. Seek out low-angle sheltered terrain for the best riding.
Snow continues to accumulate into Tuesday. Storm slabs will remain reactive.
Moderate to strong southwest winds will continue to transport the new snow.
Precipitation may arrive as rain at lower elevations. This may cause the upper snowpack to become saturated and cause wet loose avalanches in steep and rocky terrain.
Natural wind slab activity has been reported this past weekend. They were on the north and northeast and released at a depth of 10 to 40 cm.
It is suspected that a natural avalanche cycle has occurred since Sunday night's storm.
A size 2.5 natural glide slab release was reported on Thursday. This avalanche occurred at treeline on a south aspect. No other significant avalanches were reported in the past few days.
Snow arriving Monday night will sit on 35 cm of recent storm snow. This overlies a sun crust on solar aspects and a melt-freeze crust at lower elevations. In sheltered areas, the new snow has buried 10 cm of snow that fell earlier in the week. There are reports of a buried surface hoar layer underneath this layer of recent snow. Strong to moderate south to southwest winds may create new wind slabs at higher elevations. Cornices have also been created.
There are several crusts in the mid/lower snowpack. Their depth ranges from 150 to 250 cm.
A large trigger, such as a cornice fall or a smaller avalanche in motion, could trigger a very large avalanche on one of these deeply buried weak layers. A single rider is unlikely to trigger this layer unless they are in a steep, rocky, and shallow snowpack area.
Monday Night
Cloudy, up to 15 cm accumulation, winds southwest 30 to 40 km/h gusting to 60, treeline temperatures -7 to -2 °C with freezing levels reaching 1100 m.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy, trace accumulation, winds southwest 30 to 40 km/h, treeline temperatures around -7 °C with freezing levels rising to 1100 m.
Wednesday
Cloudy, 5 to 8 cm accumulation, winds westerly 20 to 30 km/h, treeline temperatures -10 to -5 °C with freezing levels getting up to 1200 m by the end of the day.
Thursday
A mix of sun and cloud, no accumulation, winds southeast 10 to 20 km/h, treeline temperatures -5 to 0 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
