New snow may need time to bond.
Investigate on small, safe features before committing to big terrain.
Storm slabs may still be triggerable in steep terrain. Test the bond on small, safe features before committing to your line.
If the sun comes out, it will likely trigger wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes, especially in areas where new snow is seeing sun for the first time.
Storm slabs are suspected to have occurred on Thursday and are likely to decrease in sensitivity moving into Friday.
On Tuesday, a rider triggered a large (size 2) storm slab that carried them a long way on the crust from March. They were uninjured. This occurred east of New Denver.
Around 10 to 20 cm of new snow fell on Thursday, which sits on a thin melt freeze crust.
A thick crust is buried 30 to 40 cm deep, which makes it unlikely to trigger any weak layers that persist in the upper snowpack.
The mid and lower snowpack is strong in most areas. Snowpack depth tapers rapidly at lower elevations.
Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1600 m.
Friday
Mix of sun and clouds. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1900 m.
Saturday
Mostly sunny. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 2100 m.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C. Freezing level 2600 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
