Purcells

Stick to conservative terrain in the wake of the storm.

Persistent weak layers likely remain reactive to human triggers. New snow needs time to stabilize and bond.

Slab avalanches are expected within new storm snow and on buried weak layers. Several natural and human-triggered persistent slabs, up to size 2.5, were observed in the alpine on Thursday.

A serious avalanche incident occurred near Radium on Sunday. We currently have limited information on this.

Outside of the forecast region, near Golden, there was a fatal avalanche on Feb 17 and a serious involvement on Feb 21. The Dangerator is recommended for areas without a bulletin.

By Monday morning storm totals are expected to reach up to 45 cm in the west, and 20 cm in the east. Moderate to strong southwest winds have redistributed this snow into deeper deposits at treeline and above. Lower elevations have received mostly rain, moistening the surface snow.

Storm snow sits over a surface hoar or crust layer from mid-February. Two more persistent weak layers are present: a layer of facets, surface hoar, or crust from late January is 30 to 50 cm deep, and a layer of facets from early December is buried 70 to 120 cm deep.

In many areas facets or depth hoar can be found at the base of the snowpack.

Sunday

Cloudy with 5 to 15 cm of snow favoring the west. Snowfall is expected to begin the night at 1500 m, and drop to 500 m by morning. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind.

Monday

Partly cloudy with flurries tapering off in the morning. 15 to 25 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level rising to 1700 m.

Tuesday

Cloudy with isolated flurries. 15 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level rising to 1700 m.

Wednesday

Clear skies. 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0°C. Freezing level rising to 2000 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Fresh snow rests on a problematic persistent slab, don't let good riding lure you into complacency.
• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.