New snow may not bond well to existing crusts and firm surfaces. Use caution as you transition into places where wind slab may be forming.
As new snow and southwesterly alpine winds arrive through the day expect wind slab development in exposed features, near ridges and high points. New wind slabs may overlay potentially weak layers or surface hoar, facets and/or crusts.
A number of buried weak layers remain possible to trigger. These layers appear to be most problematic in upper treeline and alpine elevations, in shallow, variable, rocky start zones.
A few new small wind slab avalanches have been reported in the region including one size 1 today from our team in the field.
Backcountry users continue to report evidence of a significant avalanche cycle during the recent warm, wet, and windy weather last week. The majority of these avalanches were wind slabs, however, a number of avalanches stepped down to buried persistent layers, creating large, scary avalanches, like this one in the Telkwa area from Friday.
If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a Mountain Information Network report.
There is now 15-20cm of settling storm snow over top of crusty surfaces from recent warming on January 25th. Some of this snow has been blown into small wind slabs that can be easily triggered.
The mid and lower snowpack continues to bond and stabilize while a number of buried weak layers remain a concern and have produced a number of large recent avalanches.
Tuesday night
Cloudy with flurries, 5 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C. Moderate southwest alpine winds.
Wednesday
Cloudy with snow, 5 to 10 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C. Moderate southwest alpine winds.
ThursdayCloudy with flurries, 2 to 5 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C rising in the afternoon. Strong southwest winds.
FridayCloudy with flurries, 2 to 5 cm. Treeline temperatures near 0 C. Winds tapering to light from the south.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
