Forecast dry and relatively cool weather will keep avalanche danger low this weekend.
Confidence
Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain on Monday
Weather Forecast
A ridge of high pressure rebuilds overnight and results in clearing skies and sunny weather for the weekend. The freezing level is near valley bottom on Saturday and up to around 1000 m on Sunday. Winds are light gusting to moderate from the NE-NW. A weak low pressure system could cross the province on Monday bringing light or moderate snowfall, but there’s a good deal of uncertainty with this disturbance.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported recently.
Snowpack Summary
A couple centimetres of new snow sits on the previous snow surface, which was a mix of surface hoar, crusts, wind affected surfaces, or dry powder. The most prominent snowpack features is a thick supportive crust just below the surface. It extends up to around 2200m. Below this elevation the crust is effectively capping the snowpack, preventing riders from tickling deeper persistent weak layers. In alpine areas, where the crust is not present or is less thick, it could still be possible to trigger a deep avalanche from sparsely covered rocky slopes or with a heavy load (i.e. cornice fall).
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.