Ease into terrain carefully on Tuesday. Storm slabs are likely to remain triggerable, especially in wind loaded features. Investigate the bond of recent snow and tune into any signs of instability such as cracking or recent avalanches.
Rapidly cooling temperatures have helped stabilize the recent storm snow. Slabs may remain reactive in wind loaded terrain features at upper elevations where the snow fell dry.
Monday night: Clearing. Moderate NW wind. Treeline temperature around -17 °C. Freezing level valley bottom.
Tuesday: Sunny. Light NW wind. Treeline high around -14 °C. Freezing level valley bottom.
Wednesday: A mix of sun and cloud. Strong SW wind. Treeline high around -8 °C. Freezing level valley bottom.
Thursday: Snowfall 10-20 cm. Strong to extreme SW wind. Treeline high around -3 °C. Freezing level 1000 m.
We have not yet received any reports of avalanche activity during the storm Sunday/Monday.
On Friday, the Avalanche Canada field team reported several natural size 1 and two size 2 storm slab avalanches in the alpine on northeast aspects in the Renshaw area, mostly releasing under cornices. These were failing in the storm snow down roughly 15-30 cm. Their MIN report has some good photos showing the type of terrain where these avalanches were occurring. A few other natural wind slab avalanches up to size 2 were reported on north and east aspects further north in the region. Explosives were triggering storm slabs up to size 2 failing down 20-30 cm. On Thursday, a loose wet avalanche was reported on a SE aspect at 1800 m east of Prince George which was likely solar triggered.
30-40 cm of new snow sits atop wind affected surfaces, possibly a layer of surface hoar in sheltered areas, and/or thin breakable crusts observed as high as 1700 m.
A layer of faceted snow can likely be found down around 60-120 cm from the cold period at the end of December but it has not been reactive recently and does not seem to be creating an avalanche problem in most of the region.
The early-December crust/facet interface can typically be found down around 1 m but has been dormant recently and is no longer expected to be creating an avalanche problem in the region. The base of the snowpack is composed of crusts and weak faceted grains, particularly in thin snowpack areas east of the divide.
