Natural avalanche activity has tapered but wind slabs continue to be reactive to human triggering. Pay attention to overhead hazards like cornices, especially when the sun is out.
Summary
Confidence
High - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
Thursday: Mostly sunny with alpine temperatures near -11. Ridgetop winds light from the North.Friday: Overcast with new snow amounts 5-10 cm. Alpine temperatures near -9 and ridgetop winds strong from the southwest. Saturday: Mix of sun and cloud. Alpine temperatures near -9. Light to moderate winds from the northwest.
Avalanche Summary
With the benign weather pattern natural avalanche activity has tapered. However, human triggered wind slabs are possible at upper elevations on most aspects but the north.
Snowpack Summary
Highly variable surface conditions exist with extensive wind effect. In exposed terrain, strong north winds have scoured north facing slopes and loaded south facing slopes. In sheltered terrain, especially in the trees you may be able to find 30-40 cm of low density snow. A crust layer can be found beneath the storm snow on sun-exposed slopes and below 1900 m, which has supported some wide propagations in recent storm slab avalanches.Deeper in the snowpack, avalanche professionals are still monitoring the mid-January crust. This layer is now 150-200 cm deep, but a heavy trigger (cornice?) or the next major storm (warming and loading) could potentially wake up this layer.
swerner,
Avalanche Canada
