Rider-triggered wind slab is the main concern.
The best and safest riding will be on slopes that have soft snow without any slab properties.
Reactive wind slabs have been reported on a range of aspects. Expect the most recent and reactive slabs in immediate lee terrain, such as just below ridgetops.
No new avalanche was reported.
On Monday, natural wind/storm slabs (size 1.5 to 2.5) were observed on wind-loaded lee features at treeline and in the alpine. They occurred on north to easterly slopes near Blue River.
A notable persistent slab avalanche (size 3) was also reported from a north-east alpine slope near Clemina Creek. This very large avalanche ran in a path that does not commonly run, and is suspected to have stepped down to the November crust.
Up to 15 cm of fresh snow overlies 40 to 80 cm of well-settled storm snow over a prominent hard crust formed in mid-December that extends up to 2200 m. Continued wind has redistributed the recent snow in exposed terrain at treeline and in the alpine.
Where the crust is thick and supportive, it effectively caps a few of the mid-snowpack instabilities, making them difficult to trigger. These include a spotty surface hoar layer and a crust/facet layer from mid-November. These layers may still be a concern in the high alpine, where the crust is thin or nonexistent.
Snowpack depth is around 160 cm at treeline, tapering with elevation below 1500 m.
Wednesday Night
Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Thursday
Partly cloudy. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Friday
Cloudy. 10 to 15 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.
Saturday
Partly cloudy. 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -16 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
