Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind effect is extremely variable

Low pressure off the coast is drifting south, which sets the stage for colder drier Alberta air to slide south into the forecast region.THURSDAY: Flurries or light snow. Light to Moderate east or southeast wind. Treeline temperatures around -5 to -10 CFRIDAY: Flurries or light snow. Light northeast winds. Temperatures around -5 to -10 C.SATURDAY: Similar to Friday but a few degrees cooler.

Recent avalanche activity has consisted of mainly wind slabs and loose dry in the size 1-1.5 range but up to size 2. These were either naturally occurring or intentionally triggered. More interesting avalanches included a re-loaded bed surface where an avalanche previously released on the Nov crust and the "newly awoken" Feb 14 crust found on solar aspects. Deep persistent avalanche activity has become less frequent over the past week.

Around 40 to 60 cm of recent storm snow is being redistributed into deeper, reactive slabs in wind-exposed terrain. Below this is a layer buried mid-February that presents as a sun crust on solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on sheltered slopes. This layer looks most concerning on on solar aspects where it's associated with with small facets or surface hoar above.There are several deeper layers in the mid-pack that have shown signs of improving but remain on the radar as low probability - high consequence avalanche problems. I'm talking about surface hoar layer buried back in December and January. Near the base of the snowpack is a November crust combined with loose sugary snow. These layers may "wake-up" with strong inputs such as sustained warming, sustained snowfall, large triggers (e.g. cornice fall, smaller avalanches coming down from above); human triggering is also possible in shallow snowpack areas with variable snow depth and convoluted terrain.