Avoid wind loaded slopes and pay close attention to changing conditions throughout the day as avalanche danger will increase throughout the storm.
60-100 cm of snow sits on a persistent weak layer that was buried near the end of January. This surface hoar/crust interface is slowly gaining strength but may remain human triggerable in steep convex features at treeline and potentially steep alpine features where it presents as a crust.
20-40 cm of fresh snow with strong wind and increasing temperatures will likely form reactive slabs at all elevations. Pay close attention to changing conditions and avoid freshly wind loaded slopes.
A warm front crossing the region will peak in intensity on Sunday night.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing 5 cm of snow, strong southwest wind, treeline temperatures around -8 C.
SUNDAY: Scattered flurries with 5-15 cm throughout the day, strong southwest wind, freezing level climbing up to 1100 m, treeline temperatures reach -4 C.
MONDAY: Heavy flurries overnight and throughout the day bring 15-25 cm of snow, strong southwest wind, freezing level around 1300 m with treeline temperatures around -2 C.
TUESDAY: Clearing skies, light to moderate west wind, treeline temperatures drop to -8 C.
On Friday, skiers triggered several thin (size 1) storm slab and dry loose avalanches in the 15 cm of new snow. Explosive control also produced a few larger (size 2) storm slabs that were up to 50 cm thick.
Minimal significant avalanche activity was reported between Tuesday and Thursday.
Last weekend there were numerous wind slab avalanches on northwest, north, northeast, and east facing features, while in the first two weeks of February there were many reports of human triggered persistent slab avalanches. The persistent slab avalanches failed on a surface hoar layer that is now 50-100 cm deep and is most prevalent at treeline elevations. There have also been 2 very large explosive triggered avalanches in the Bonningtons in the past month (most recently on Feb 9) that stepped down to the early December crust to produce a 200 cm deep, size 3.5 avalanche.
With another 10-20 cm of snow expected by Sunday afternoon there could be 20-40 cm of recent snowfall to form reactive storm and wind slabs. This storm snow has buried old hard wind slabs that may still be reactive on steep high elevation slopes. The main persistent layer of concern is a combination of surface hoar, facets, and crust layers that formed in January that are now buried 60-100 cm deep. An early season crust near the bottom of the snowpack has periodically produced avalanches in thinner snowpack areas. These persistent layers have appeared to gone dormant in the past week, but could re-emerge as a problem with the incoming weather.
