Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain

A cooling and drying trend is expected to start on Saturday. Cloudy skies, light winds, cool temperatures and a few flurries are expected on Saturday, with sunny skies possible on Sunday/ Monday.For more details check out http://www.avalanche.ca/weather.

Numerous large (size 2-3) persistent slabs failed naturally or with artificial triggers this week. Many of these were remotely triggered, highlighting the extreme sensitivity of the buried weak layer. These events appear to be on all elevations and aspects, but seem to have been somewhat limited in distribution across the region. On Friday, a large natural avalanche cycle to size 3.5 was reported by one operator near Valemount. In other parts of the region, the persistent slab may not get such a good clean-out and the problem may linger for human-triggering beyond the end of the storm.

Heavy new snow and strong winds have created storm slabs in many places and wind slabs on features lee to the south. This will also add load and stress to the already volatile persistent slab. There are a couple of highly reactive layers of surface hoar buried in the upper snowpack, which have been responsible for recent avalanches. The mid and lower snowpack are generally strong, with any weak layers considered dormant for now. Snowpack depths are variable and shallow snowpack areas may have weak facetted crystals near the ground.