South Rockies

Recent storms have been incrementally adding load to a layer of recently buried surface hoar. Check out the recent forecaster blog post for strategies on how to manage this scenario

Fair - Wind effect is extremely variable

A weak ridge of high pressure will begin to build across southern British Columbia on Monday. Scattered flurries with light precipitation amounts are expected for the South Rockies. The ridge will strengthen Tuesday. The next system is forecast to hit the north Coast on Wednesday although the models are in disagreement about whether it will be able to displace the ridge and slide down into the southern interior. Temperatures will remain mild through the period with westerly winds becoming northwesterly.

Human triggered avalanches can be expected in wind-loaded features at treeline where fresh slabs will be sitting on a layer of surface hoar.  Recent snowpack tests suggest that if a deeper instability was triggered it would produce a large destructive avalanche.

Fresh wind slabs are forming in lee features at alpine and treeline. The weekend storms hid a layer of surface hoar and/or a crust that exists in many places up to 1900m. At higher elevations the new slow fell on widely wind affected surfaces. The midpack is broken by a thick crust down 40-80cm that was buried in mid-December. In many places this crust is overlaid by facets and/or surface hoar. In areas where the overlying slab is thick and cohesive, large avalanches are possible on this interface. Closer to the ground a crust/facet interface that formed in November seems to be dormant for the time being.