Weather Forecast
A firmly embedded ridge of high pressure over Alberta seems to be causing systems to fizzle once they reach the Columbia Mountains. Although there may be sunny breaks on Saturday, conditions will be mostly cloudy for the forecast period with trace amounts of snowfall possible each day. Winds will be light and northwesterly with alpine temperatures trending from -7.0 on Saturday to -13.0 by Monday.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanche activity to report.
Snowpack Summary
In general the snowpack is well settled and riders have gained confidence in steeper terrain. Very warm alpine temperatures from last weekend melted surface snow layers and a crust now exists to ridge top on solar aspects. Large weak cornices are plentiful and small wind slabs may exist in isolated terrain in the alpine. Below about 1500m, crust/facet layers buried in early January as well as widespread facets that were buried on January 20th are still on the radar of operators in the region. These layers represent a low probability/high consequence scenario. If you're traveling in the mountains now is a great time to take stock of current surface conditions (surface hoar, crusts, facets) that will become an issue once buried.
Problems
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.