New snow has refreshed the ski quality above 1700m and more is on the way! Ice climbers and couloir skiiers: watch out as this new snow will sluff easily over the next few days as the snow and winds continue
20-30 cm of new snow and moderate to strong alpine winds has created windslabs in lee alpine and treeline terrain. More snow and wind over the next few days will add to these and keep them reactive.
Buried crust/facet layers exist in the upper snowpack on steep solar aspects and may become more reactive with the new snow load. These persistent layers can be tricky to assess so use caution on slopes where they are present.
20-30 cm of new snow in the last few days is sluffing easily in steep terrain. This could be particularly problematic in gullies (ice climbing/steep skiing terrain).
Steady precipitation over the next few days as the SW flow keeps bringing moisture. An additional 10-30 cm is expected by end of Wednesday. Alpine winds are expected to be moderate to strong from the West throughout. Freezing levels will be ~ 1600m on Tuesday and lowering to ~ 1200m for Wednesday and Thursday.
15-30cm of new snow sits on a buried sun crust on steep solar aspects, and either previous wind effect or soft snow on other aspects. Several buried sun crust layers exist on steep solar aspects,. but the most concerning have been (Feb 16 down 40-50 cm and Jan 30 down 50-80 cm). The lower snow pack is generally well settled.
Forecasters in the Boom lake area in Kootenay today heard a couple big booms coming out of the obscured steep alpine walls. Likely cornice collapses or wind slab/ dry loose avalanches initiating from snow and wind loading in steep alpine terrain. Local ski hills were reporting windslabs in alpine and treeline terrain, mainly in the size 1-1.5 range
