Avoid avalanche terrain. Human triggered avalanches are likely.
It remains possible that humans could trigger surface hoar and/or faceted grains that were buried mid-February, especially at high elevations where a thick crust doesn't exist above it.
Recently riders have triggered very large avalanches. The snow is slow to bond to underlying layers of surface hoar and/or a hard crust. Slabs are touchy in immediate lee terrain features from new snow and strong wind.
On Saturday 2 very large (size 3) rider-triggered avalanches were reported on northeast and east aspects near Valemount. On Friday near the southern boundary of the forecast region, numerous large to very large (size 3-4) persistent slab avalanches were triggered utilizing explosives. Near Mcbride, a few small to large (size 1-2) natural and human-triggered avalanches were observed in both alpine and treeline.
60 to 90 cm of storm snow has accumulated over the past 7 days. All this snow overlies a hard melt-freeze crust found everywhere except north-facing slopes above 1600 m. There may also be isolated surface hoar crystals above the crust in wind-sheltered terrain around treeline. Southwest wind has formed deeper and touchier deposits in lee terrain features at high elevations.
A weak layer of surface hoar and/or faceted grains buried mid-February is around 70 to 120 cm deep.
The lower snowpack is well-settled.
Sunday night
Cloudy with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
Monday
Cloudy with 0 to 5 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Tuesday
Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Wednesday
Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 30 km/h ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
