Keep your guard up as wind slabs remain sensitive to human triggering.
Seek out sheltered terrain where you can avoid wind slabs and find great riding.
Recent snowfall and wind have created fresh wind slab, which will be particularly reactive on lee slopes and cross-loaded features. Recent strong wind means wind slabs may be found farther downslope than expected.
Poor visibility restricted field observations on Wednesday and Thursday, but natural avalanche activity has likely occurred with the recent wind and storm snow.
Looking forward, avalanche activity will remain sensitive to human triggering over the coming days, as natural avalanche will taper off.
If you are heading into the backcountry, please share any observations with the Mountain Information Network.
The latest storm added 20 to 30 cm of additional new snow to the snowpack. Strong to extreme westerly wind redistributed this new snow, farther downslope than normal, forming reactive slabs down to treeline.
This overlies old settling snow in wind-sheltered terrain, hard wind-affected snow in open areas and/or a solid melt-freeze crust in wind-exposed terrain.
The remainder of the snowpack is consolidated with no layers of concern.
Thursday Night
Cloudy. 5 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -14 °C.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 3 cm of snow. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -14 °C.
Saturday
Mostly sunny. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -11 °C.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. 70 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
