Avalanche Forecast

High - We are confident about the likelihood of avalanche activity, what is less certain are their possible size.

A storm impacting the region offers a nice refresh of cold snow accompanied by strong wind largely out of the south. For the weekend, a ridge of high pressure will strengthen over the BC interior, which will generate strong outflow winds and residual flurries.

THURSDAY NIGHT: Snow 15-20 cm / Freezing level at valley bottom / Moderate southerly wind gusting at 70 km/h / Low of -15

FRIDAY: Snow 10 to 15 cm / Freezing level at valley bottom / Moderate west southwest wind / High of -20

SATURDAY: Flurries up to 5 cm with another 5-10 cm overnight / Freezing level at valley bottom / Moderate southwest wind / High of -15

SUNDAY: Flurries / Freezing level at valley bottom / Moderate to strong southwest wind / High of -10

Evidence from last weekend's storm was observed again Wednesday, with some natural avalanches (size 1.5) mostly prevalent in wind-loaded upper elevation terrain features. Avalanches were also easy to trigger by riders, as few loose dry and storm slabs were reported through the region in open terrain.

Over the last 10 days, reported avalanche activity on the early December crust/facet interface has been confined to a pair of isolated avalanches in complex northeast-facing alpine terrain which were triggered with explosive control work. The size 3 avalanches had crowns over a meter in depth. 

Storm slab avalanche activity is anticipated to increase on Friday due to the new snow. The new load will also increase the likelihood of persistent slab avalanches, with the potential to trigger larger-than-expected avalanches.

Up to 10-15 cm of low-density snow fell during Thursday as the storm has started to impact the region. This new snow is falling on a variety of surfaces, thin sun crust on solar aspects, isolated surface hoar at treeline on sheltered slopes or fresh wind slabs in lee alpine features at treeline and above. The last storm (20-60 cm) was accompanied by variable southerly wind.

We're actively monitoring the early December crust. In some places, it's scoured and on the surface, while in wind-loaded terrain features it can be found as deep as 150 cm below the surface. It consists of faceted grains above a bulletproof crust formed by the Atmospheric Rivers of early December. There has been isolated avalanche activity on this crust in the last week that seems to be confined to complex alpine terrain. 

• Avoid all avalanche terrain during periods of heavy snowfall.
• Be aware of the potential for human triggerable storm slabs at lower elevations, even on small features.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.