Recent storm snow may take a bit more time to stabilize. Be particularly wary if your local area has more than 20 cm of new snow.
All the recent snow may take a bit more time to stabilize. This is particularly true where it overlies weak surface hoar crystals and in wind-exposed terrain near ridges.
Tuesday saw a few small to large (size 1 to 2) wind slab avalanches out of steep alpine terrain. Otherwise, there was evidence of similar avalanche activity from the weekend's storm.
New snow with strong easterly wind is forecast for Wednesday night. The snow will build on the 30 to 60 cm of accumulated snow since Saturday. All this snow overlies a hard melt-freeze crust and perhaps isolated surface hoar crystals in wind-sheltered treeline terrain. The snow may be deeper and touchier in wind-exposed lee features.
A weak layer of surface hoar and/or faceted grains buried mid-February is around 50 to 100 cm deep, but is showing signs of strengthening.
The lower snowpack is well-settled.
Wednesday Night
Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow and local amounts of up to 20 cm possible. 20 to 40 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -16 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 10 to 20 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -14 °C.
Friday
Mostly sunny. 10 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -11 °C.
Saturday
Mix of sun and cloud. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
