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 reports of several large avalanches over the weekend.

Operators in the area have reported numerous storm slab and wind slab avalanches up to size 2.5. Notably, many of these avalanches were remote-triggered.

Reports of large persistent slab avalanches up to size 3.5 have also been reported.

There was also an avalanche involvement on Saturday near the Anderson cabin, reported in this MIN.

20-30 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.

Monday Night

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.

Tuesday

Cloudy with 1 to 4 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C. Freezing level 900 m.

Wednesday

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

Thursday

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.