Southern sections have received the most snow recently and that's where the main avalanche concerns are found. At upper elevations, especially on southerly aspects where the dry snow sits on a crust, storm slabs could be triggerd by warmth, cornices, or riders.
High and dry alpine north aspects likely still hold pockets of wind slab that haven't been capped by crust and may still react to a human trigger. Watch for these wind slab pockets in steep north and east-facing, leeward slopes.
A weak layer of facets exists near the base of the snowpack. Thinner snowpack areas may be more suspectable to triggering.
Thursday's reports were only of wet loose avalanches to size 1.5 on solar aspects.
The reports we received on Wednesday indicate a widespread wind slab avalanche cycle up to size 3 in the Cariboo Mtns. Additionally small loose dry avalanches at high elevations and loose wet slides on all aspects and elevations.
Storms continued to bring snow, mainly in the Cariboos and primarily at alpine elevations. On north aspects above 1600 m, this 20-50 cm of recent but settling snow overlies old, faceted grains, now around 30-70 cm deep.
On solar aspects and even some north aspects to mountaintop (e.g. west side of the Cariboos like Barkerville ) the recent snow either overlies a widespread melt-freeze crust or this crust is at the surface.
The middle of the snowpack is generally well-settled and strong. A weak layer of facets at the base of the snowpack remains a concern, primarily in alpine terrain shallow or variable (thick and thin) snowpack depths.
Friday Night
Clear periods. Nil precipitation. Increasing southwest winds gusting to moderate. Treeline temperatures around -5 with freezing level at valley bottom..
Saturday
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. WInd increasing from the south or southwest with moderate gusts. Alpine high temperatures around -7 C with freezing levels to 1700 m.
Sunday
Warm overnight with freezing level only falling to around 1500m. Sunday itself overcast with 5 to 15 cm of snow. Alpine temperatures around -5 C with freezing level up to around 2000 m. Light, gusting moderate southerly wind.
Monday
Sunny with cloudy periods and isolated flurries. Only a trace of precipitation. Cooler with diminishing wind.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
