Head to lower elevation, sheltered terrain to find the best conditions and avoid avalanche problems.
Watch for wind affected snow at higher elevations, wind slabs remain possible to trigger. Avoid thin and rocky start zones where buried weak layers are shallow.
Keep in mind short periods of sun may increase reactivity on south facing slopes.
Recent snow and wind have reverse-loaded fresh wind slabs into atypical terrain features. Watch for wind loaded features as you move to higher elevations.
Watch for wind drifted snow below ridge crests and rollovers and in cross-loaded terrain.
Weak, sugary crystals at the bottom of the snowpack produced large avalanches in late February. This problem may become active again with any rapid change to the snowpack, such as heavy snowfall, warming or large impacts such as cornice falls.
Recent avalanche observations have been limited to solar-triggered loose avalanaches of steep south aspects up to size 1.5 on Wednesday.
Last week the region saw numerous natural wind slab and cornice-triggered avalanches up to size 2.
On Tuesday our field team observed a size 3 deep persistent slab avalanche near Hankin that they estimated to be around a week old. The slab propagated across the full steep, rocky feature. This has been the latest of a pattern of intermittent large deep persistent slab activity in the alpine. Observations from late February include a cornice-triggered size 2.5 at Hudson Bay and several explosive controlled size 2-3 near Ningunsaw.
10-20 cm of recent wind affected snow sits over previously hard, wind affected surfaces in the alpine. Sun crust or moist snow can be found on steep solar aspects.
Several crusts, layers of facets, or surface hoar can be found in the top 150 cm of the snowpack, but have not shown any significant avalanche activity or snowpack test results recently.
The lower snowpack consists of weak, basal facets which may become active with any rapid change in the snowpack, such as heavy loading or dramatic warming.
Friday Night
Cloudy with moderate southeasterly wind. Flurries possible. Freezing levels below valley bottom.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries and a chance of sunny breaks. Moderate southeasterly wind. Alpine high -14 ˚C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries. Moderate southeasterly wind. Alpine high -12 ˚C.
Monday
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries. Light southeasterly wind. Alpine high -10 ˚C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
