Start with small slopes, and gather information before heading into committing terrain.
Continue to be wary of a buried layer of surface hoar.
Recent snow and wind likely formed wind slabs at all elevations.
This may be less of a problem at lower elevations where the recent storm was wetter.
Buried surface hoar remains concerningly reactive in snowpack tests. It is difficult to define the specific terrain where you could trigger this layer, due to a lack of snowpack and avalanche observations.
On Saturday, west of Prince George, there were reports of natural and rider triggered avalanches up to size 2. It seems that avalanches were occuring at all elevations, but that they were most prominent in wind affected terrain in upper treeline.
See this great Mountain Information Network (MIN) post for one group's observations from the day.
We expect that human triggered avalanches will remain possible on Sunday.
20-40 cm of recent snow is settling on old, hard surfaces, like windslabs or a frozen crust.
A concerning layer of surface hoar can be found 50-90 cm below the snow surface.
A crust with sugary facets beneath it can be found just above the ground. Average snowpack depths at treeline range from 65 to 100 cm.
Sunday Night
Partly cloudy. Possible trace of snow expected. Light to moderate southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high around -4°C with possible temperature inversion.
Monday
Cloudy. 2-5 cm of snow expected. Light southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -2°C with possible temperature inversion.
Tuesday
Cloudy. 5-20 cm of snow expected (highest amounts just east of Prince George). Moderate to strong southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -1°C with possible temperature inversion.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 5-10 cm of snow expected. Light to moderate southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -3°C with possible temperature inversion.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
