Wind and visibility may have been keeping you out of the alpine, but you might find you weren't missing much if a window of opportunity opens. Stick to sheltered pow for the best, safest riding.
Wind slab formation has been relatively constant and slabs consistently reactive to human-triggering on the west slope of the region. Shifting winds have obscured older slabs while creating new ones.
Thursday's reports mainly centered on dry loose sluffing, a shift from more pronounced wind slab triggering over the two days prior. Slabs were touchy to human triggering on north through west aspects in the alpine on Tuesday in the MacGregors, producing releases to size 2. Continuing wind loading kept that pattern active on Wednesday. There should still be some snow available to transport and keep wind slab concerns alive until warming shakes things up early next week.
Up to about 40 cm of snow since March 7 overlies wind-affected old surfaces in the alpine and a crust that extends to ridgetop. Wind slab formation from easterly winds occurred with the earlier storm accumulations, now buried by either low density snow or more westerly wind transport. The crust becomes supportive at lower elevations and is 5 cm thick below 1400 m.
Another crust with faceted snow above, buried at treeline and below in February, is found around 100 to 160 cm deep. It's becoming well bonded to the surrounding snow and at lower elevations will be capped by more recent crust. Warming will test it again next week.
The remainder of the snowpack is well consolidated with no other layers of concern.
Friday Night
Partly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. 15 to 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind, increasing. Treeline temperature -13 °C.
Saturday
A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and a few cm of new snow, mainly in the south. 20 to 30 km/h west ridgetop wind, increasing. Treeline temperature -13 °C.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud, becoming cloudy with flurries bringing a few cm of new snow before increasing overnight. 30 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind, shifting south and increasing. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Monday
Cloudy with continuing snowfall bringing 25 to 40 cm of new snow. 50 to 80 km/h southwest ridgetop wind, increasing. Treeline temperature reaching 1 or 2 °C as freezing level jumps to 2300 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
