South Columbia

Extra caution required below treeline where a buried weak layer is easily triggered. Check out the new forecaster blog at avalanche.ca/blogs or click here

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

As this weekends storm exits the interior regions we may squeeze out a few more cm of snow by Monday morning. No additional snow is expected Monday to Wednesday. Freezing levels should remain at or near valley bottom, though there is some disagreement in the models regarding freezing levels. Ridgetop winds are expected to stay in the light to moderate range out of the southwest. For additional weather information see avalanche.ca/weather

Over the weekend we had limited observations of new avalanches due to inclement weather. However, there were reports of human triggered avalanches to size 2.5 below 1800 m. Of note, a size 2.5 was remotely triggered from 50 m away. We anticipate continued human triggering of persistent slab avalanches on the surface hoar layer that was buried in early January.

10-15 cm of new snow has been added to a 40-60 cm persistent slab which overlays a variety of surfaces including large surface hoar, sun crusts, and facets. This slab is ripe for human triggers and is especially touchy below 1800 m. Expect fresh wind slabs sitting on top of old snow surfaces on lee features in the alpine. The mid and lower snowpack are generally well settled and strong.