We've been enjoying excellent early season conditions. Regardless, maintain safe travel practices; choose safe re-group locations, don't expose multiple people at a time, plan your escape routes and identify safe zones before committing to your line.
Weather Forecast
Scattered flurries, with less than 5cm of new snow, light-moderate SW winds, alpine temps of -10 and a chance of sunny periods, are expected today. A low pressure system will move over the region on Monday. Moderate to strong S to W winds and 10-15cm of snow is expected by the end of the day. On Tuesday, building high pressure will bring more sun.
Snowpack Summary
In the alpine and at treeline 40-50cm of loose storm snow overlies a well settled snowpack. Tests show that the interface beneath the storm snow may be triggerable by a skier but is resistant to move (RP). The Nov28 surface hoar down 80cm is hard to find and where it exists is breaking down. The early Nov crust down 1.5m would be hard to trigger.
Avalanche Summary
With no new snow and light winds yesterday, no new avalanches were observed. On Friday, avalanche technicians traveling in the Illecillewaet and Asulkan drainages observed no new avalanches, nor did they experience any sluffing while skiing steep S and W facing slopes.
Confidence
Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.