The best riding right now is probably on high north aspects, which is also where the hazard is the highest. Don't let your guard down when searching for fresh powder.
Confidence
Moderate - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
We're into a fairly stable weather pattern: seasonal temperatures and isolated flurries. SUNDAY: Cloudy with light flurries (2-5cm possible), light southerly winds and freezing levels around 1200 m.MONDAY: Cloudy with light flurries, local accumulations 5-10cm, light to moderate southwesterly winds and freezing levels around 1300 m.TUESDAY: A mix of sun and cloud with light snow flurries starting in the evening, light winds and freezing levels around 1200 m.
Avalanche Summary
Reports from Thursday and Friday morning include natural and skier triggered 15-60 cm thick storm and wind slab avalanches up to Size 2. One skier-triggered storm slab stepped down to facets buried early February down 70 cm. Other reports from Friday include natural wet loose avalanche activity up to Size 2.5 at lower elevations, including solar (south) aspects. Touchy new storm slabs (think northerly aspects in the alpine) are sensitive to light triggers and have the potential to step down and trigger persistent slab avalanches.
Snowpack Summary
At higher elevations expect to find 25-40 cm of fresh snow bonding poorly to buried surface hoar and/or a crust, and blown into deep wind slabs near ridge crests. Below 1600m the moist snow has frozen to give a breakable (10cm thick in places) crust: Not much fun riding I'm afraid. Rapidly settling storm snow from last week is still bonding poorly to the previous snow surface from early February, which is now down 60-90 cm and includes a sun crust on steep sun-exposed slopes, faceted snow, as well as surface hoar on sheltered open slopes. The mid and lower snowpack are generally well settled and stable in deeper snowpack areas but may be faceted and weaker in shallower areas. The mid-December surface hoar/facet persistent weakness can now be found down roughly 150 cm. It has become inactive in the south of the region, but may still be lingering in the northern part of the region near Blue River and Valemount.
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.