Recent snow and strong winds have produced wind slabs in lee features. Watch for signs of avalanche activity and locally unstable snow, such as whumpfing and shooting cracks.
Summary
Confidence
Moderate - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny with afternoon clouds, light westerly winds, alpine temperature near -20 C, freezing level below valley bottom.WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny, moderate westerly winds, alpine temperature near -18 C, freezing level below valley bottom.THURSDAY: Partly cloudy, light easterly winds, alpine temperature -18 C, freezing level below valley bottom.
Avalanche Summary
On Saturday, small (size 1) loose dry and storm slabs were triggered naturally.Avalanche activity will continue as the recent snowfall begins to gain strength. Expect widespread loose dry and storm slab activity as well as wind slab activity in lee features. If triggered, these layers have the potential to release buried weak layers.
Snowpack Summary
Around 30-60 cm of storm snow with strong winds have created widespread loose dry and storm slab avalanche problems. Some of this snow has been re-distributed with strong winds, creating wind slabs on lee features. These slabs overly a layer of weak surface hoar buried mid-February that has produced very easy snowpack test results with sudden fracture characters.The lower snowpack in this region is weak with two main concerns:1) a widespread weak layer from mid-December composed of facets, crusts, and surface hoar that is 100-150 cm deep.2) a rain crust with sugary facets buried in late-November near the bottom of the snowpack. Although the snowpack structure is variable across the region, these persistent weak layers are generally widespread.
mconlan,
Avalanche Canada
