Avalanche Forecast

High - The weather pattern is stable

SUNDAY: Flurries with 2-4 cm of new snow easing off in the morning, light northwest winds, alpine temperatures around -17 C.MONDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light west winds, alpine temperatures around -17 C.TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud with flurries starting in the afternoon, light southwest winds, alpine temperatures around -15 C.

Few avalanches have been reported the past few days. On Thursday, ski cutting produced a few size 1 wind slabs on northerly alpine features. Some fast moving sluffing in the recent snow was also reported in steep alpine terrain. Last weekend, several larger avalanches were reported, including a remotely triggered size 3 avalanche on a deep persistent weak layer near Valemount. See here for a list of recent near misses in the Cariboos and North Rockies. Watch for isolated wind slabs at higher elevations and stay aware of the low probability - high consequence scenario of triggering a deep persistent slab avalanche.

Light flurries over the past few days delivered 15-30 cm of low density snow. Expect to find isolated pockets with thicker wind deposits at higher elevations as well as sun crusts on steep south slopes. The recent snow has buried the mid-February interface, which is composed of a thick rain crust up to about 1700 m, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on shaded aspects. Some lingering surface hoar layers from January are down about a metre and the weak facets buried in mid-December are down about 1.5 metres. These deep persistent weaknesses still have the potential to wake up and become reactive with human triggers.