Northwest Coastal

We're dealing with a complex snowpack at the moment. Now is a good time to make conservative terrain choices.

Moderate - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain on Saturday

Friday: No precipitation is expected, strong easterly outflow winds and -2 to -5 at treeline. Saturday: Snowfall starting over night with accumulations of between 5 and 10cm throughout the day, -5 to -10 at treeline, moderate southerly winds. Sunday: Light snow in the morning becoming intermittent flurries by the afternoon, - 5 at treeline, light to moderate southeasterly winds.

We've receive sporadic reports of natural, explosive, skier remote and skier triggered avalanches ranging from size 1-2 from across the region through the week. Shooting cracks are being observed wherever the recent storm snow is starring to slab up. We haven't had any recent reports of these surface avalanches steeping down to any of the deeper week layers, although the potential for this to happen could still be there.

We're dealing with a complex snow pack with multiple buried weak layers in the top meter. Between 15 and 35cm of new snow now is settling into a soft slab that sits above a widespread layer of surface hoar. Moderate southerly winds have loaded lee features. Snowpack tests have been producing easy failures on this layer, especially in places where the surface hoar is sitting on firm, previously wind affected snow. Below this you can find up to 3 other distinct buried weak layers of surface hoar, faceted snow, or thin sun crusts. These deeper weak interfaces continue to produce variable results in snowpack tests. Although they appear to be gaining strength they're worth keeping on your radar; especially in the thinner snowpack areas in the east of the region.