Be cautious of slopes being loaded my new snow and wind where human triggered avalanches are likely.
New snow and wind will form fresh slabs on Monday night. Up to 10 cm of new snow will add to the 10-30 cm from the weekend and form reactive slabs on wind loaded slopes.
Triggering large avalanches on weaknesses in the lower snowpack remains a possibility. In some areas the concern is weak snow around crusts 50 to 100 cm deep, while in others it is weak snow near the bottom of the snowpack. This problem is best managed by avoiding steep rocky slopes and approaching all avalanche terrain with caution.
Frontal systems cross the region on Monday night and again on Wednesday afternoon.
MONDAY NIGHT: 5-10 cm of snow, moderate southwest wind, treeline temperatures around -4 C.
TUESDAY: Flurries easing off in the morning then some sunny breaks in the afternoon, moderate to strong west wind, treeline temperatures around -6 C.
WEDNESDAY: Scattered flurries throughout the day with up to 5 cm of snow, moderate southwest wind, temperatures around -4 C.
THURSDAY: Scattered flurries 5-10 cm of snow, light northwest wind, temperatures around-6 C.
Over the weekend there were numerous large (size 2-3) natural storm slab avalanches at alpine and treeline elevations, and some smaller (size 1) human triggered storm slabs. Natural and human triggered slab avalanches remain a concern with more snow and wind on the way on Tuesday. Triggering large persistent slab avalanches remains possible, even though few avalanches have been reported over the past month.
New snow and wind will form fresh slabs on Monday night. Up to 10 cm of new snow will add to the 10-30 cm from the weekend, creating the potential for reactive slabs on steep wind-loaded slopes. The upper snowpack consists of several layers of old wind slabs, while the lower snowpack consists of decomposing crusts and weak faceted snow. Some large avalanches were reported on these deeper layers on Dec 23 and 25, but for the most part they have not been reactive over the past few weeks. However, this snowpack structure is always a concern on steep rocky slopes with variable snowpack depths.
