Purcells

Maintain a conservative approach, recent storm snow still needs time to stabilize and bond to surfaces below.

Over the weekend, explosive control work in the north of the region produced several storm and wind slab avalanches up to size 2 on various aspects and elevations.

As much as 50 cm of new snow in areas has been redistributed by recent strong winds.

A variety of pre-existing surfaces exist below the new snow, including sun crusts on south-facing slopes and faceted snow or surface hoar in sheltered north-facing terrain.

A widespread crust formed in early February is buried roughly 40 to 80 cm. This crust may be less prominent or not exist at high alpine elevations.

The mid and lower snowpack is largely faceted with depth hoar and a crust found at the bottom of the snowpack in many areas.

Monday Night

Mostly cloudy with 1 to 5 cm of snow. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -15 °C.

Tuesday

Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -17 °C.

Wednesday

Mostly cloudy with 0 to 8 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1700 m.

Thursday

Mostly cloudy with 2 to 10 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1400 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Good day to make conservative terrain choices.
• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Storm snow and wind is forming touchy slabs. Use caution in lee areas in the alpine and treeline.
• In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.