Selkirk Mountains

Avalanche conditions are generally safe. Continue to assess conditions as you travel and be mindful that old, stubborn drifted slabs still exist below ridgelines, on steep convex rolls, and in gullies. It may be appropriate to step out into more complex terrain, but even a small avalanche can lead to a bad outcome in the wrong place.

From the outside looking in, you may notice very little change to snowpack and avalanche conditions. That is true in the sense that your chance to trigger an avalanche today is not any more likely than yesterday. But don’t let the visual appearance sway your interpretation of the storyline because the snowpack is constantly evolving – until it’s gone. The primary metamorphic change is occurring at and directly below the snow surface. The progressive influx of much colder air has steepened the temperature gradient and vapor flux in the upper snowpack and the top four to eight inches of snow is getting softer and losing cohesion.

As the very cold and dry weather pattern prevails, we expect the faceting process to accelerate – both in grain size and depth of facets. Individual grains will continue to grow at the expense of each other and become weaker. Above the tree line, hard slabs on windward-facing slopes and sun crusted surfaces on steep, southerly-facing slopes will continue to weaken underneath and give them a hollower, drum sound. And in sheltered areas, surface hoar feathers will continue to impress with their budding sizes. While not much of a hazard at present, pay attention to what surfaces look and feel like now to be one step ahead of future avalanche problems.

The longer the cold, stagnant weather pattern slowly degrades upper snowpack layers, it may require us to be more mindful of rider-triggered loose snow sluffs in steeper terrain. This hazard can be more challenging to manage where a pile of weak, cohesionless snow sits directly above a harder layer or interface, or where facets are around a foot deep. While generally harmless, facet sluffs can gain steam in bigger terrain and entrain additional snow volume making a larger pile at the bottom. These conditions are likely to develop first in more sheltered areas and at lower-elevations versus slopes higher up or more open where winds have left surfaces wind-pressed and firm.

With abundant hard snow surface at upper elevations, triggering a small, isolated slide that knocks you over or makes you catch an edge could send you for a dangerous tumble. Think twice about the terrain hazards and runouts where you plan to recreate and continue using good travel habits with a solid exit plan to help reduce your avalanche risk.

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**We continue to receive intermittent reports of opening glide cracks and some failing naturally producing large to very large glide avalanches. Avoid traveling on or below slopes where a glide crack has opened. These types of avalanches are difficult to forecast when they will release.**