South Coast

Don't let blue skies and fresh snow lure you into big terrain! A buried persistent weak layer is still lurking and could wake up with forecast sunshine and rapidly rising temperatures.

Fair

Synopsis: A building upper ridge of high pressure will result in drier conditions and more sunshine for the next several days. Temperatures will also increase dramatically by Tuesday. Tuesday: A mix of sun and cloud. The freezing level is around 1200 m. Winds are light and variable. Wednesday: A mix of sun and cloud. An above freezing layer is possible between 1500 and 2300 m. Winds are light and variable.Thursday: Cloudy with sunny breaks and a chance of light precipitation. The freezing level is near 1800 m.

There was one new report of a remotely triggered thin wind slab from a SW aspect at treeline on Saturday. A couple natural avalanches were also observed in the Steep Creek area off the Duffey Lake road on Friday. One of these appeared to release on relatively low angle terrain (30 degrees) and propagated very far. These likely released on the mid February persistent weakness. Check out Wayne Flann's Avalanche blog for photos.

10-30 cm of cold low density new snow has fallen in the past couple days, accompanied by light to moderate W-NW winds. Older dense wind slabs may be lightly buried on a variety of aspects and in cross-loaded terrain features. In the southern portion of the region up to 200 cm of settled storm snow sits on a crust/facet combination buried in mid February. In northern sections this weakness includes surface hoar and is generally down 60-100 cm. Recent snowpack tests indicate that this weak layer may be gaining strength, but professionals remain suspect. The mid and lower snowpack are generally strong and well-settled. However, basal facets and depth hoar are likely to exist in the north of the region and still deserve respect on thin rocky alpine slopes.