Great conditions with new snow and light winds forecast for Thursday, then cooling. We're now in suncrust season, so be wary of buried crusts on solar aspects; these have a nasty habit of surprising us in March. North aspects don't have this problem.
10-20 cm of new snow will fall on Thursday, but with light winds the windslab formation should be in immediate leeward areas only. Watch out on steep south/east/west facing terrain that may have a buried suncrust.
The different weather models do not agree, but it looks like about 15 cm of new snow is expected by the end of day Thursday. This comes with light winds and temps from 0 to -5 on Thursday. Overnight Thursday the skies clear and temperatures drop about 10 degrees.
20-30cm of snow over the past 3-days has made for a smooth, well-bonded snow surface up to treeline with limited wind effect in alpine areas. Warm temperatures have created wet snow and crust below about 1600m with some snowballing on the surface. Watch for buried sun crusts on S and W aspects; always a concern during the second half of the winter.
No new avalanches observed or reported from Sunshine or Lake Louise ski area, or from ski touring trip to Crystal Ridge on Hwy 93N, or from a road patrol in Kootenay National Park. Breaking news late in the day from K-Country: size 2.5 skier remote slab 40 cm deep on a SE aspect at 2500 m (ran on a suncrust).
