Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

• We are uncertain due to the variability of wind effect on the snowpack.

On Friday, a few natural wind slabs occurred in the alpine on south and east aspects. They were large (size 2 to 2.5).

Soft wind slabs developing in the alpine produced releases to size 1.5 with sled traffic, to size 1 with skier traffic, and ran naturally to size 2 in the southeast of the region on Thursday.

About 50 cm of snow since March 7 has been redistributed by strong winds in exposed alpine and treeline terrain. It sits on old wind effect at these elevations and on a melt-freeze crust to at least 1600 m. It may contain two crusts on treeline solar aspects and gave moderate, sudden test results on 60 cm-deep stellar grains in Allan Creek Thursday.

Layers from late Jan and early Feb, both made of surface hoar, facets, and/or crust, are 100 to 150 cm deep. They're showing up less in test results but may remain a problem in isolated thin-to-thick snowpack areas above the elevation of our newest crust. A north aspect at 1600 m in the lower Canoe gave moderate, propagating results on the 90 cm-deep Jan layer Wednesday.

Saturday Night
Partly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -13 °C.

Sunday
Mix of sun and clouds. 1 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.

Monday
Mostly cloudy. 10 to 25 cm of snow. 70 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. Up to 20 mm of rain at treeline. 80 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 3 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be careful with wind-loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and rollovers.
• Recent wind has varied in direction, so watch for wind slabs on all aspects.
• Seek out sheltered terrain where new snow hasn't been affected by wind.
• Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.