The storm is easing out, but dangerous avalanche conditions remain.
Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
Light snowfalls, combined with strong winds, will keep developing fresh reactive storm and wind slabs. Expect these slabs to be most reactive on lee slopes and farther downslope than usual with recent strong wind.
Poor visibility restricted field observations on Wednesday and Thursday, but natural avalanche activity has likely occurred from the ongoing storm.
Observations from low elevations reported natural sluffing and soft slabs even on low-angle slopes and creek banks.
If you are heading into the backcountry, please share any observations with the Mountain Information Network.
The latest storm added 20 to 40 cm of additional new snow to the snowpack. This overlies recent storm snow, wind-affected surfaces in open terrain at upper elevations and a sun crust on steep south-facing slopes.
Strong to extreme westerly wind redistributed this new snow, farther downslope than normal, forming reactive slabs down to treeline.
In sheltered terrain, 60 to 80 cm of snow sits on a hard melt-freeze crust from early February. Below this, a layer of surface hoar, facets, and/or crust from late January is buried around 120 cm. Triggering either of these layers is considered unlikely at this time.
The remainder of the snowpack is consolidated with no layers of concern.
Thursday Night
Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1600 m.
Friday
Cloudy. 3 to 5 cm of snow. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Saturday
Mostly sunny. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
