Lingering storm instabilities remain the primary concern. Give the new snow a couple days to settle and stabilize, especially in wind loaded areas.
Summary
Confidence
Fair - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
A ridge of high pressure should keep the region dry and mostly sunny for Tuesday through Thursday. Freezing levels are expected to reach around 1300m on Tuesday, 1000m on Wednesday, and climb to over 2000m on Thursday. Alpine winds should remain light for Tuesday and Wednesday but are forecast to increase to moderate on Thursday.
Avalanche Summary
On Sunday, several size 1 storm slabs and wind slabs were ski cut. A natural size 2 was reported in the Waterton area. Natural avalanche activity is generally not expected on Tuesday but remains possible in isolated areas. Human-triggering is possible or likely in wind loaded areas and steep terrain features, especially where surface hoar underlies the recent storm snow.
Snowpack Summary
10-30cm of new snow fell over the weekend. Fresh wind slabs have formed in lee features at alpine and isolated areas at treeline. The storm snow buried a layer of surface hoar and/or a crust that exists in many places up to 1900m. At higher elevations the new slow fell on widely wind affected surfaces. The mid-December crust layer is down 40-80cm. In many places this crust is overlaid by facets and/or surface hoar. In areas where the overlying slab is thick and cohesive, large avalanches remain possible on this interface. Closer to the ground a crust/facet interface that formed in November seems to be dormant for the time being.
rbuhler,
Avalanche Canada
