Regions
Kootenay Boundary.
Warmth is the main driver of avalanche hazard at the moment. Minimize your exposure to large slopes if the snowpack is becoming moist or wet.
Confidence
Fair - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain
Weather Forecast
Sunday: Freezing level hovering around 2000m. Light SW winds at treeline, moderate SW winds at ridgetop. Scattered cloud early in the day, likely overcast by sundown. No significant precipitation expected.Monday: Freezing level starting around 2200m, rising to 2500m by the afternoon. Very light South/Southwest winds at treeline, moderate SW winds at ridgetop. Spring pattern, intermittent cloudy periods speckled with sunny breaks. No significant precipitation expected.Tuesday: Freezing level starting around 2000m, dropping to 1500m by days end. 1 to 10mm of precipitation expected, 1 to 12cm of snow possible. Treeline winds moderate SW/W, ridgetop winds strong SW.
Avalanche Summary
A wide variety of avalanches were observed Friday: Loose wet avalanches to size 2 on all aspects between 1600m and 2200m, a size 2 wet slab on a E/SE facing feature at 2200m and even a rider triggered storm slab on an E facing feature, likely from early in the day.
Snowpack Summary
20 to 40 cm of rapidly settling wet snow can be found on the surface. Friday felt almost May-like in the mountains with temps topping out at +15c at 900m, +5c at 2200m. Temps dipped below freezing early Saturday morning for a few hours which likely created a very thin surface crust. The mid March crust/facet complex is now down 40-60cm, potentially deeper on wind loaded features. Most recent reports suggest that the overlying snow is bonding well to the crust. However, snowpack tests continue to produce sudden fracture characters indicating there is still energy at this interface.
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.