Avalanche conditions remain dangerous.
Expect small avalanches in many areas, especially in lee features.
Stick to low-consequence terrain while the snowpack settles and stabilizes.
Ongoing snowfall is continuing to build storm slabs. Expected them to be reactive to natural and human triggers, especially in freshly wind-loaded terrain features.
Saturday, many operations conducted explosive control work, producing storm/wind slabs (size 1.5-2.5). Snow was reactive to skier traffic and sluffing occured in steep terrain.
One larger slab (size 3.5) stepped down to the November crust on an alpine southeast aspect in the West Purcells.
Friday, natural storm/wind slabs (size 2-2.5) were observed, as well as accidentally triggered slabs (size 1 to 1.5) on north to east aspects, at alpine and treeline elevations.
An additional 10-15 cm of snow has accumulated on top of the previous storm snow, bringing the total to 70-90 cm. This overlies a hard crust, formed in mid-December, that extends up to 2300 m. Wind has redistributed the recent snow in exposed terrain.
Where the crust is thick and supportive, it effectively caps a few mid-snowpack instabilities, making them difficult to trigger. These layers, now over 150 cm deep, may still be a concern in the high alpine where the crust is thin or nonexistent.
Snowpack depth is around 220 cm at treeline, tapering with elevation below 1500 m.
Sunday Night
Mostly cloudy. 10 to 15 cm of snow, 20+ cm in high terrain in the central Selkirks and west Purcells. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Monday
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 4 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 5 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
