Watch for shallow snowpack areas where triggering persistent slab avalanches remains possible.
Summary
Confidence
High - Due to the number and quality of field observations
Weather Forecast
MONDAY: Continued light flurries with 2-4 cm of new snow, light southwest winds, alpine temperatures around -15 C.TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries, light west winds with moderate gusts, alpine temperatures around -15 C.WEDNESDAY: Light flurries with 4-8 cm of new snow, moderate west winds, alpine temperatures around -12 C.
Avalanche Summary
No notable avalanches were reported on Saturday. On Friday, several skier triggered size 1-1.5 slabs were reported on steep convex alpine features. Several large natural persistent slab avalanches have been reported on the western slopes of the Purcells, including a cornice triggered size 3.5 avalanche on the November crust and two size 2.5 avalanches the February 3rd surface hoar. Last week, three larger skier triggered avalanches were reported including a remotely-triggered size 3 persistent slab near Golden.
Snowpack Summary
Flurries delivered another 2-5 cm of low density snow on Saturday night, bring recent totals from the last week up to 15-40 cm. A pulse of moderate winds from a variety of directions formed fresh thin wind slabs at higher elevations. The recent snow has buried the mid-February interface, which is composed of a thick rain crust up to about 2000 m, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on shaded aspects. Several deeper weak layers remain a concern including the February 3rd interface (40-80 cm deep) in the southern Purcells and the mid-January interface in the northern Purcells (about 100 cm deep). Basal facets may still be a reactive in shallow rocky start zones.
shorton,
Avalanche Canada
