Storm slabs are expected to remain reactive, especially if the sun comes out on solar slopes and on wind loaded features in the alpine.
Summary
Confidence
Moderate - Timing of incoming weather systems is uncertain on Monday
Weather Forecast
SUNDAY: partly cloudy with flurries starting in the afternoon, up to 10cm expected overnight, moderate southwesterly winds, freezing level of 1200m. MONDAY: lingering flurries with sunny breaks, moderate northeast winds, freezing level of 1000m. TUESDAY: mainly sunny, light variable winds, freezing level of 1000m.
Avalanche Summary
Numerous natural and artificially triggered storm slab, windslab, and cornice avalanches have been reported in the last couple of days. Storm slab avalanches are expected to be remain reactive to human-triggering with ongoing snowfall and wind, especially if the sun pokes out. Cornices are reported to large and fragile, and may fail under the weight of a person.
Snowpack Summary
Up to 80 cm of settling storm snow overlies a thick rain crust which extends into the alpine. The snow is reported to be bonding well to the crust and all the recent avalanches have been failing within the recent storm snow, not on the crust interface. At treeline and below, other crusts may exist in the upper snowpack due to the recently fluctuating freezing levels. Ongoing southeast through southwest winds have been loading leeward features in the alpine and large cornice development has been reported over the last few days. The weak surface hoar layer from early January can be found down over a meter and is still reactive in isolated snowpack tests but triggering an avalanche on this layer has become unlikely.
esharp,
Avalanche Canada
