Human triggered wind slabs remain possible.
Look and feel for signs of instability and identify wind slabs. Listen for drum-like or hollow-sounding snow.
Strong to extreme winds have heavily impacted the alpine and open treeline terrain. Outflow winds are redistributing any remaining dry snow, building new wind slabs over hard previous surfaces.
No new avalanches reported.
Going forward, wind slabs remain possible to human trigger and may be found on atypical slopes.
Heavily wind affected surfaces in all open terrain features at all elevations. Recent north winds developed wind slabs on atypical south slopes due to reverse-loading.
A mid-February crust or facet layer sits 50 to 70 cm deep, and the late January crust/surface hoar layer is buried 50 to 100 cm deep.
Facets or depth hoar exist at the base of the snowpack and may be a concern in the inland side of the region, where the snowpack is generally shallower.
Thursday Night
Clear skies. 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -23 °C.
Friday
Sunny. 10 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -22 °C.
Saturday
Mostly sunny. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -20 °C.
Sunday
Mix of sun and clouds. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -15 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
