New snow falling earlier in the week is being redistributed into lee terrain.
Extreme cold significantly increases the consequences of an incident in the backcountry.
Recent storm snow requires time to stabilize and bond. Recent moderate to strong winds have redistributed this new snow into lee terrain. In some areas the new snow may be sitting on a weak layer of surface hoar.
On Thursday there was a report of a remotely triggered (from a distance)size 1 persistent slab avalanche in the Rossland Range. On Wednesday in the Bonnington range there was a report of a naturally triggered size 3 avalanche on an east aspect in the alpine. This was suspected to have run on a layer of surface hoar buried in early January.
If you go out in the backcountry, please consider sharing your observations on the Mountain Information Network (MIN).
In the past week, as much as 70 cm of snow has accumulated in some areas. This new snow has buried a variety of old surfaces, including surface hoar on sheltered, north-facing terrain and a sun crust on south-facing slopes.
The middle of the snowpack contains a series of old melt freeze-crusts.
A thick crust deep in the snowpack largely protects any weak layers further down in the snowpack from being triggered.
Friday Night
Mostly clear, north alpine wind 10 to 30 km/h, treeline temperature -28 °C.
Saturday
Sunny with no precipitation, northwest alpine wind 15 to 30 km/h, treeline temperature -24 °C.
SundaySunny with no precipitation, northwest alpine wind 20 to 40 km/h, treeline temperature -18 °C.
MondaySunny with no precipitation, northeast alpine wind 20 to 40 km/h, treeline temperature -16 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
