Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain on Thursday

A weak pacific frontal system will bring light snowfall (up to 10cm) Wednesday night and into Thursday. A clearing trend is forecast for Friday and Saturday as a ridge of high pressure rebuilds in the eastern Pacific. Winds are expected to be strong from the southwest on Thursday, and then become moderate from the northwest on Friday and Saturday. Daytime freezing levels should hover around 1000m for the forecast period

In the far north of the region on Tuesday, explosives avalanche control produced deep persistent slab avalanches to size 4 in the big terrain near Stewart. Otherwise, no new avalanches have been reported. There will likely be a shift to new wind slab activity with snow and wind forecast for late Wednesday.

In the south of the region, melt freeze conditions exist below about 1800m. Above this you'll likely find settled wind slabs on north facing terrain, and a melt freeze crust on solar aspects. Between 15 and 40cm below the surface you may find weak surface hoar which was buried on February 10th. Although recent warming may have destroyed this potentially weak layer in some areas, I'd dig down and test for this layer at upper elevations where colder temperatures may have allowed for this weakness to persist. In general, the mid and lower snowpack are strong and well-settled. Further north in the region, slightly cooler temperatures have persisted and melt freeze conditions are not as widespread. In these areas deeper persistent weaknesses are more likely to exist.