Lizard-Flathead

Avalanches are most likely in alpine terrain where the snow feels stiff or slabby, especially on freshly wind-loaded slopes.

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain

SUNDAY NIGHT: Light flurries with minimal accumulations as a weak front passes overnight, moderate to strong wind out of the southwest, alpine temperatures drop to -8 C.MONDAY: Cloudy with light flurries with trace accumulations, moderate wind out of the west with strong gusts, alpine high temperatures around -4 C.TUESDAY: The next storm arrives midday, current forecasts only show about 5 cm of snow but amounts are uncertain at this point, strong wind out of the west, alpine high temperatures around -4 C.WEDNESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud with some lingering flurries, strong wind out of the west, alpine high temperatures around -2 C.

Recent avalanche activity has been limited to a few small wind slabs and loose dry avalanches, mostly in steep alpine terrain.The last notable avalanche was a size 2 human triggered avalanche on December 2nd in Cornice Bowl north of Fernie. It occurred on a northwest facing feature at 2300 m and ran on a crust layer. There are good photos in this MIN report.

Early season conditions prevail in this region with roughly 100 cm of snow in alpine areas and much less at lower elevations. Surface conditions range from soft power, to hard wind slab, and some sun crusts.See the snow profile in our field team's MIN report for a visual representation of the snowpack here. The main concern is a combination of weak facets and crusts in the bottom half of the snowpack. The crust is most prevalent at and above treeline and is likely most problematic on north-facing features, especially those that are large and planar in nature. A layer of large surface hoar can also be found at similar depths in some areas, as found in a recent MIN report here.