North Columbia

Touchy wind slabs are lurking in unusual places, such as south aspects. Persistent slabs still can't be totally trusted, especially in shallow snowpack areas.

High -

FRIDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries bringing trace amounts of fresh snow, light southerly winds, alpine temperature around -15.SATURDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries and trace amounts of fresh snow, light southeasterly winds, alpine temperature around -8.SUNDAY: Mainly cloudy with light flurries, light becoming moderate southwesterly winds and alpine temperatures around -10.

Reports from Tuesday and Wednesday include a few natural and human-triggered sluffs and wind slab avalanches up to Size 2 and a Size 2.5 cornice fall, but generally no new avalanches. Expect wind slabs, cornices and loose surface snow to remain sensitive to human triggers for the forecast period.

Surface hoar and surface facets have likely been buried by a light dusting of fresh snow. In exposed areas at all elevations, recent winds have resulted in scouring, hard wind slabs, and thicker reactive wind slabs in unusual places as the winds shifted from west to northeast. Moderate southeasterly winds are likely keeping winds slabs fresh in some areas, while old wind slabs are breaking down with faceting in other areas. Facets and/or surface hoar buried mid-December has been giving hard and broken or no results in snowpack tests where it is down around a metre or more. However, recent snowpack tests in a shallower area gave moderate sudden planar results on this persistent weakness where it was found as surface hoar down 55 cm. This suggests that the primary concern for persistent slab avalanches is in shallow snowpack areas; however, the potential for step-down avalanches remains where it is deeper. The lower snowpack is well bonded and features a thick rain crust near the ground.