Lizard-Flathead

The wind has a lot of new snow to whip up into fresh wind slabs. I recommend caution in wind affected areas.

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain

THURSDAY: Mostly dry with some sunny breaks. Ridgetop winds southwest 40-60 km/h. Treeline temperatures rising to around -4C after a cold morning. FRIDAY: Mostly dry and clear. Winds becoming light westerly. Temperatures around -4C.SATURDAY: Flurries in the afternoon. Moderate southwesterly winds. Temperatures around -8C.

On Tuesday, new storm snow produced numerous size 1.5-2.5 avalanches, including natural and skier-triggered loose dry and storm slab avalanches on north and east aspects. On Wednesday, explosive control continued to release storm slabs, but they remained relatively small (up to size 2).

Quite a lot (up to 50 cm) of recent low density snow has fallen, which is now available to be redistributed by mostly moderate southwesterly winds. The new snow sits above a variety of surfaces including old hard wind slabs and surface hoar. The cold weather in early December left several layers of weak surface hoar and facets which are now buried 50-80 cm deep. These layers have been inactive for the past week, as it appears the lower snowpack is well-settled. A thick crust rain crust from mid-November is near the bottom of the snowpack and remains well bonded to the surrounding snow.