Don't let your guard down with the sunny weather and fresh snow. Take a cautious approach towards more aggressive terrain - especially steep, wind-affected terrain.
Summary
Confidence
Moderate - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
We're into a period of fine weather for the foreseeable future, with significant warming from Wednesday onwards. Tuesday: Mainly sunny and becoming warm up high. Freezing levels rising to 1500 m. Light northerly winds.Wednesday: Sunny. Light northerly winds. Freezing levels 3000m. Alpine high temperatures to +2 Celsius.Thursday: Sunny and warm. Freezing levels around 3500 m. Light northwesterly winds. Alpine high temperatures to +5 Celsius.
Avalanche Summary
On Sunday, a Size 1 storm slab was reported in the north of the region - on a steep, unsupported convex roll. Otherwise, no new avalanches observed.
Snowpack Summary
Approximately 40-60 cm of snow from late last week now sits on top of a rain crust (or multiple crusts) that formed during the wet weather at the end of November. Strong (southerly) winds have blown snow around in exposed areas creating drifts and scoured areas. For the most part, the riding in the region consists of 20-30cm of low density snow that is right-side up (the snow gets more dense as you go deeper into the snowpack). The main areas of concern are lee (down wind) north facing and cross-loaded features in the alpine and tree line elevation bands. Snowpack depths are typically around 150 cm in sheltered tree line locations, although deeper (and shallower) spots certainly exist on account of the strong winds.
mgrist,
Avalanche Canada
