Northwest Coastal

Wind slabs remain triggerable by riders and may fail down to a buried weak layer.

Natural, rider, and remotely triggered storm and wind slab avalanches size 1-2 were reported throughout the region over the past 3 days. On Sunday, explosive work produced wind slabs up to size 2.5.

Most of the recent avalanches were on north aspects at treeline and above. The failure plane has been predominantly facets under the recent storm snow, but in some cases slabs ran on a buried crust with crowns 50 to 100 cm deep.

30 to 60 cm of recent snow has been redistributed by wind at upper elevations. It may take some time to bond to underlying snow, including facets and crusts as well as surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain.

A thick crust with weak facets overtop was buried in early February and is now 50 to 100 cm deep. It has been a problematic layer for step-down avalanches.

Below, the mid and lower snowpack is generally well-bonded and strong.

Colder end of forecast temperature ranges are for areas north of Stewart.

Monday night

Partly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -16 to -24 °C.

Tuesday

Mostly cloudy with 5-10 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 to -16 °C.

Wednesday

Overnight flurries bringing 5-10 cm then a mix of sun and cloud. 20 to 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 to -12 °C.

Thursday

A mix of sun and cloud. 30 to 50 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 to -10 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Stay off recently wind loaded slopes until they have had a chance to stabilize.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
• Seek out sheltered terrain where new snow hasn't been wind-affected.