Pay attention to the direction of the wind as you travel through wind exposed areas – wind slabs are the main concern.
Wind slab avalanches are possible to trigger in lee terrain after 20 to 30 cm of snow from earlier in the week has been redistributed by southwest wind.
Skiers have triggered small (size 1) slab avalanches in the top 20 to 30 cm of snow since Wednesday, as nicely illustrated in this MIN report. Larger storm and wind slab avalanches (size 2 to 2.5) were observed along ridges immediately after the storm on Wednesday.
Surface conditions are variable and include sun crusts, surface hoar, and wind-affected snow. Sheltered areas have 20 to 30 cm of soft snow from earlier this week.
In terrain sheltered from the wind, small surface hoar crystals may be found 50 to 90 cm from the surface. At a similar depth, you may also find a melt-freeze crust on sun-exposed slopes and below 1900 m.
The lower snowpack contains weak and faceted grains. Deeper weak layers in the snowpack have not recently produced avalanches, but they may become reactive again if there is a rapid change in the weather.
Saturday night
Clear skies, no precipitation, 20 km/h northwest wind, treeline temperatures cool to -8 ºC.
Sunday
Sunny periods in the morning then increasing cloud in the afternoon, 30 to 40 km/h southwest wind, treeline temperatures warm to -2 °C.
MondayCloudy with scattered flurries bringing 5 to 10 cm of snow, 40 km/h southwest wind, treeline temperatures around -4 °C.
TuesdayMostly sunny, no precipitation, 30 km/h north wind, treeline temperatures around -6 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
