Kitimat

Look for signs of instability and assess the bond between new snow and the old surface as you move through terrain.

Be ready to back off if there's a weak bond between new snow and the old surface. 

There have been several reports of windslab, and persistent slab avalanches up to size 2 releasing at treeline and alpine elevations on Saturday.

Persistent slab avalanches on the February weak layer have tapered off since earlier this week.

20 cm of new snow is being redistributed by southerly winds. This new snow fell on a widespread layer of large surface hoar crystals, which sits on a crust on solar aspects and at low elevations. This should produce reactive or even touchy surface instabilities.

A layer of facets, surface hoar and/or a crust from mid-February are buried 50 to 100 cm deep. This layer produced large natural and human-triggered avalanches earlier this week.

The remainder of the snowpack is well consolidated with no concerns at this time.

Sunday Night

Cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 20 to 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 900 m.

Monday

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 900 m.

Tuesday

Partly Cloudy. 10 to 15 km south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 800 m.

Wednesday

A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries. 1 to 3 cm of snow 10 to 15 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -2 °C. Freezing level 900 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind-affected terrain.
• Be aware of the potential for large avalanches due to buried surface hoar.