Enjoy the sun this weekend and avoid areas where the snow feels stiff or slabby.
The best riding and lowest danger will be in areas sheltered from wind and sun effect.
Wind slabs continue to be triggered sporadically in the region. A layer of surface hoar buried in early January has kept slabs reactive for longer than usual.
On Friday, a rider accidentally triggered a small wind slab west of Kaslo on a southeast facing treeline slope. Several small natural and human triggered slabs were also observed on various aspects in the alpine in the western Purcells.
On Thursday, a skier triggered a small (size 1) slab north of Trout Lake on a northeast-facing alpine slope.
Due to wind slabs overlying weak surface hoar in some areas, we expect wind slabs to remain triggerable for longer than usual.
10 to 15 cm of low-density snow has accumulated over the week, covering a variety of surfaces: Most notably weak surface hoar, and a sun crust on sunny slopes. The snow surface is wind-affected in the alpine and some treeline areas, and a sun crust may exist on steep sunny slopes.
A couple of other weak surface hoar layers are buried 30 to 50 cm. These layers have recently only been reactive where wind-blown snow has formed a cohesive slab overtop.
A crust/facet/surface hoar layer from early December is 90 to 160 cm deep, and is considered to be dormant at this time.
Check out this great MIN describing the snowpack near Meadow Creek, or this one on conditions near the Kaslo-New Denver Pass.
Saturday Night
Clear. 15 to 25 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Sunday
Sunny. 15 to 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C, inversion developing.
Monday
Sunny. 25 km/h north ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C, inversion.
Tuesday
Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h variable ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C, inversion.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
