Natural avalanche activity has tapered off, but be conservative. There is still concern for human triggering.
Watch for new wind loading at ridge tops and in the alpine as moderate SW winds are in the forecast and there is a lot of snow available for transport.
Storm slabs are settling down but use caution and dig down to test the snow before committing to a slope.
Friday. Cloudy with sunny periods. Precipitation: Nil. High -9 °C. Ridge wind west: 15-35 km/h.
Saturday. Flurries. Accumulation: 6 cm. Low -12 °C, High -10 °C. Ridge wind west: 20 km/h gusting to 60 km/h.
Sunday. Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries. Precipitation: Trace. Low -12 °C, High -9 °C. Ridge wind southwest: 20 km/h.
The 60-80cm of storm snow that fell over the past week continues to settle, and be redistributed by moderate southerly winds at ridge tops. This storm snow overlies variable basal snowpack depending on aspect and elevation with a melt freeze crust up to around 2500m, and weak faceted snow near the ground in most places tree-line and above.
With good visibility on Wednesday numerous avalanches, up to size 3.5, were observed. Most occurred during and near the end of the past storm. These avalanches were predominantly out of steep alpine features, but a large avalanche was caused by explosives in a similar terrain feature at tree-line, propagating over 800m wide.
