Avalanche danger will increase throughout the day as strong winds and snow move in.
Seek out sheltered terrain below treeline where you can avoid slabs and find great riding.
New snow, combined with steady strong to extreme wind, will form new reactive storm and wind slabs over old surfaces. Expect these slabs to be most reactive on lee slopes.
On Monday, small wind and storm slabs (size 1) were accidentally triggered by riders on steep north-facing slopes at treeline and below treeline near Blue River. A few natural wind slab avalanches (up to size 1.5) were also observed out of isolated steep alpine terrain near Valemount.
If you are heading into the backcountry, please share any observations with the Mountain Information Network.
By Wednesday afternoon, an additional 15 to 25 cm will be added to the current snowpack. This overlies recent storm snow and wind-affected surfaces in open terrain at upper elevations.
In sheltered terrain, 50 to 80 cm of snow sits on a hard melt-freeze crust from early February. Below this, a layer of surface hoar, facets, and/or crust from late January is buried around 100 cm. Triggering either of these layers is considered unlikely at this time.
The remainder of the snowpack is consolidated with no layers of concern.
Tuesday Night
Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 60 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Wednesday
Cloudy. 10 to 15 cm of snow. 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.
Thursday
Cloudy. 10 to 20 cm of snow. 70 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Friday
Cloudy. 2 to 5 cm of snow. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
