Fasten your seatbelts folks. Atmospheric River week ahead!
Prolonged heavy loading and rising freezing levels this week means it is a good time to stay out of avalanche terrain. Period.
Two persistent weak layers are buried down ~ 130 and 170 cm. These layers are of great concern with the incoming load this week. Use caution in thin snowpack areas that are not typically skied, and limit exposure to open paths that have not recently produced large avalanches.
With up to 30cm and strong winds arriving by end of day tomorrow, expect a building storm slab problem and rising avalanche danger throughout the day.
We expect a significant, destructive series of natural avalanche cycles this week.
Size 1.5 skier triggered wind slab was reported on MacDonald West shoulder Friday.
Neighbouring operations are still reporting sporadic, persistant slab natural avalanche activity up to sz 3.
Information on how to deal with persistent slab problems, see the Avalanche Canada blog post.
In the Alpine and at Treeline, 30-70cm of storm snow has fallen since Mar 8. Moderate to strong southerly winds have loaded lee features in exposed terrain.
Below treeline, 20-30 cm of storm snow covers the Mar 8 rain crust, which is present up to ~1850m.
The Feb 9 and Jan 26 surface hoar (SH) layers are now buried 110-170cm deep. The Jan 26th layer is a crust with either surface hoar (up to 40mm in some places!) or facets on top of it.
A series of atmospheric rivers are forecast to impact our area this week. Expect a steep rise in freezing levels, heavy precipitation and strong to extreme winds.
Tonight Snow, 5cm. Alpine low -10°C. Freezing level (FZL) 500m. Wind SW 25km/h
Mon Snow, 25-30cm. High -1°C, FZL 1800m. Wind SW-35 gusting 85km/h
Tues Snow, 30cm. High 1°C. Wind SW 30-55km/h. FZL 2300m.
Wed Snow, 40cm. High 1°C. Wind SW 30-80km/h. FZL 2000m
