Confidence
Fair - Due to variable weather conditions for the entire period
Weather Forecast
Saturday: Very light snowfall / Light northwest winds (with strong gusts) / Freezing level at 900mSunday: Moderate to locally heavy snowfall developing later in the day / Moderate to strong west winds / Freezing level at 1000mMonday: Light snowfall / Light southwest winds / Freezing level at 800m
Avalanche Summary
Avalanche observations were limited due to poor visibility, although several slab avalanches to size 2 were reported at treeline from the Coquihalla area. Human trigger avalanches will remain a real possibility on Saturday.
Snowpack Summary
Moderate to heavy snowfall has been redistributed into potent wind slabs at treeline and above and may overlie small surface hoar buried on February 20th. Where it exists, the surface hoar will surely prolong the reactivity of the new storm slab.On shaded slopes up to 45cm of snow may overlie surface hoar which was buried on February 12th. Most reports of this layer are coming from the Duffey Lake area where recent snowpack tests have shown sudden planar fracture characteristics at this interface. On solar aspects and at lower elevations recent accumulations overlie a melt freeze crust.The mid and lower snowpack pack layers are generally well settled.
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.