Regions
South Coast Inland.
Reactive wind slabs remain the primary concern at upper elevations. These are easily triggered by the weight of a person.
Confidence
High - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
Heading into March it feels more like January. The strengthening ridge will bring us another fairly long stretch of cold, dry and clear weather.SATURDAY/ SUNDAY/ MONDAY: A mix of sun and cloud with alpine temperatures near -15. Moderate ridgetop wind from the northeast through the forecast period.
Avalanche Summary
On Thursday, numerous wind slabs up to size 1.5 remained reactive to human triggers on all aspects at treeline and in the alpine. These wind slabs failed on older firm surfaces and facets approximately 20-30 cm down.
Snowpack Summary
10-20 cm of new snow now sits above a plethora of old surfaces including firm wind affected surfaces, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, surface hoar and faceted crystals in sheltered areas. This recent low-density snow may sluff easily from steeper terrain features. Strong northeast wind from earlier this week formed pockets of wind slab in exposed terrain which remain reactive to human triggers especially on southerly aspects. Wind slabs have been failing on a weak faceted layer down 20-50 cm but we're uncertain of how widespread this layer is. The lower snowpack is generally well-settled.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.