North Rockies

Windy and snowy conditions will continue to create dangerous avalanche conditions.

Seek out sheltered terrain below treeline where you can avoid slabs and find great riding.

Moderate

• We are confident the likelihood of avalanches will increase with the forecast weather.
• We are uncertain about forecast snowfall amounts.

No avalanche activity has been reported in the past few days. Poor visibility may have restricted field observations.

Looking forward, wind slab avalanche activity is likely to increase as new snow accumulates and the wind picks up over the coming days.

If you are heading into the backcountry, please share any observations with the Mountain Information Network.

On Wednesday, 10 to 20 cm of snow had fallen, bringing the totals to 20 to 35 cm since Monday. This overlies old settling snow in wind-sheltered terrain, hard wind-affected snow in open areas, and/or a solid melt-freeze crust in wind-exposed terrain near ridgetops.

Strong to extreme southwest wind has redistributed this new snow into deeper deposits on lee slopes. The previous wind had stripped the snow in wind-exposed terrain down to the early-February melt-freeze crust.

The remainder of the snowpack is consolidated with no layers of concern.

Wednesday Night

Cloudy. 10 cm of snow. 80 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Thursday

Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 70 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.

Friday

Mostly cloudy. Up to 5 cm of snow. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -13 °C.

Saturday

Mostly sunny. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -11 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Minimize exposure during periods of heavy loading from new snow and wind.
• Avoid freshly wind-loaded terrain features.
• Look for signs of instability: whumphing, hollow sounds, shooting cracks, and recent avalanches.
• The best and safest riding will be on slopes that have soft snow without any slab properties.