Storm slabs are settling and gaining strength but the deeply buried persistent weak layer continues to be a concern for human triggering.
Summary
Confidence
Moderate - The weather pattern is stable on Tuesday
Weather Forecast
Tuesday: mainly cloudy with sunny breaks, no snow expected, light westerly winds, -5C at 1550m. Wednesday: overcast with snow starting in the afternoon and up to 5cm expected overnight, light southerly winds, -5C at 1500m. Thursday: clearing, isolated flurries possible early in the day, light southwesterly winds, freezing level rising to 1500m.
Avalanche Summary
Although avalanche activity seems to be slowing we continue to receive reports of natural and skier triggered wind and storm slab avalanches up to about size 2 releasing down 20 to 30cm. No new reports of any avalanches releasing down to the deeper persistent weak layers.
Snowpack Summary
A soft storm slab 20-30 cm deep can be found across most of the region. This may be sitting on a layer of surface hoar that was buried on January 27th. Some areas have reported that previous strong winds destroyed this surface hoar, and may have stripped the old surface back to a hard rain crust before the recent storm snow arrived. At lower elevations the storm slab may also be found on top of one or two thin freezing rain crusts up to about 2100 meters. Deeper in the snowpack, the persistent weak layer that was buried January 4th is now down 80-120 cm and continues to give sudden planar fractures in snowpack tests in some areas.
esharp,
Avalanche Canada
