Regions
Kootenay Boundary.
Snow quality should be slightly improved, but be wary of touchy thin wind slabs and loose snow sluffing in steep exposed terrain.
Confidence
Good - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
A very persistent ridge of high pressure will maintain dry and mainly sunny conditions for… a long time (at least a week, but probably longer). Temperatures should slowly rise with a freezing level near 1200-1400 m on Wednesday, 1500-1600 m on Thursday, and around 2000 m heading into the weekend. Ridge winds should be generally light but gusting to moderate from the NW-SW.
Avalanche Summary
On Monday there were reports of small rider-triggered loose snow avalanches in steep terrain. It might also be possible to trigger thin pockets of wind slabs in exposed lee terrain.
Snowpack Summary
Shady and sheltered slopes have around 5-10 cm of fresh low-density snow, with thin wind slabs forming in exposed lee terrain. Sun-exposed slopes likely have a thin sun crust on the surface. The most prominent feature in the snowpack is a thick crust, down 5-30 cm. This crust is supportive all the way to ridge crest and is effectively "capping" the snowpack, keeping riders from tickling any deeper weak layers. There are still weak layers below this crust that we'll continue to monitor, but for now these layers are dormant. We would likely need significant warming and/or heavy loading to re-activate them.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.