It's still a good time of year to be cautious with your movement and terrain selection.
Be wary of deeper, wind-loaded slopes where the buried weak layer is on the verge of being overloaded.
The most likely place to trigger an avalanche is in wind-loaded terrain where there is more snow on top of a layer of weak, feathery crystals buried in mid November.
Use extra caution below ridgecrests and in cross-loaded features.
On Tuesday, our field team had concerning snowpack test results on the same surface hoar layer (buried in mid November) related to this Mountain Information Network report.
Most of the alpine has been wind-affected.
In sheltered areas, expect to find soft snow over settled snow and a layer of weak, feathery crystals in sheltered areas around treeline and above.
Moderate to strong southwest through northwest wind may have formed small pockets of wind slab on leeward slopes. This is of most concern on sheltered features, where another layer of weak feathery crystals is buried up to 35 cm.
The early November crust is buried at about 60 cm with small facets above it.
At treeline, the snow is expected to be about 100 cm deep, decreasing to about 30 cm at valley bottom.
Wednesday Night
Mostly cloudy. 5 cm of snow. 40-60 km/h west ridgetop wind, possibly as high as 70 km/h southwest of Smithers. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1100 m.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 1 mm of precipitation as snow or rain at treeline. 45 km/h west ridgetop wind dropping to 25 km/h. Average treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1300 m.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Freezing level dropping rapidly overnight. Daytime treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 350 m.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 3 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 300 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
