Confidence
Fair - Timing of incoming weather is uncertain for the entire period
Weather Forecast
Friday: Moderate to locally heavy snowfall with greatest amounts falling in the Coquihalla area / Strong to extreme southwest winds / Freezing level at 1100mSaturday: Trace amounts of new snow / Light northwest winds / Freezing level at surfaceSunday: Moderate snowfall / Moderate south winds / Freezing level at 1400m
Avalanche Summary
Fairly widespread sluffing in stepper terrain was reported from the Duffey area on Wednesday. I would expect a shift to significant storm slab instabilities with weather forecaster for Friday.
Snowpack Summary
Relatively light amounts of new snow have been redistributed into wind slabs in exposed areas at treeline and above and may overlie small surface hoar buried on February 20th.. On shaded slopes up to 25cm of snow may overlie surface hoar which was buried on February 12th. Most reports of this layer are coming from the Duffey Lake area. Recent snowpack tests have shown sudden planar fracture characteristics at this interface. On solar aspects and at lower elevations light 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.