Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing

The snow surface consists of a melt-freeze crust on solar aspects and shaded aspects up to treeline which transitions into moist/wet snow during the day. Dry snow might still be found on northerly aspects high in the alpine. 20-40 cm of recent snow has formed isolated pockets of wind slab on leeward slopes and behind terrain features. The recent snow sits on a series of melt-freeze crusts on all aspects below 1900 m and southerly aspects to mountain top. On North aspects in the alpine, the recent snow sits on dry wintery snow surfaces and possibly surface hoar on wind-sheltered slopes. 

Cornices are large, fragile and failing with warm temperatures. Many natural cornice falls were observed recently. Some triggered slabs on the slopes below.

Previous periods of warm weather are expected to have helped old persistent weak layers heal, including a few crusts buried over the last month as well as a facet layer 150 cm deep from the mid-February cold snap. However, with each day of warm weather the likelihood of triggering buried weak layers increases. 

A widespread wet loose avalanche cycle to size 3 and several cornice failures entraining snow on the slopes below were reported on Friday and suspected to have happened over the last few days (see this MIN).  

Several small wet loose avalanches to size 1.5 on solar aspects in the alpine were reported on Tuesday.

Several cornices failed recently. Most did not trigger slabs on slopes below except for a few that triggered size 2 slabs on extreme north facing alpine slopes. 

To get the complete forecast with additional graphics and details, please view the Cariboos forecast provided by Avalanche Canada.