Enjoy the sunshine as the daytime temperatures become reasonable.
Weather Forecast
Cold overnight temperatures will continue through the weekend with daytime highs being reasonable around -15 C. The anticipated light snow flurries expected mid week have moved up and some light snowfalls may arrive by Monday. Don't expect a lot of snow out of it, but the temperatures should warm up slightly with the cloud cover.
Snowpack Summary
Surface facetting continues with the cold temps. A Hard mid-pack is providing bridging strength over the weak basal facet layer at tree line and above. Below treeline where the snowpack exceeds 70cm, it has a supportive mid-pack. Reasonable ski conditions can be found in sheltered features at tree line and below.
Avalanche Summary
An avalanche patrol down Highway 93 produced several size 1.5 slab avalanches in the alpine on reverse loaded features likely releasing in the past three days. Similar observations were seen in the Maligne valley as well.
Confidence
The weather pattern is stable
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.