Kootenay Boundary

The strength of the snowpack is slowly improving, but it's still a good plan to keep your guard up around steeper, sheltered slopes and rolls at treeline and above.

Moderate -

Wednesday night: Mainly clear with some low level cloud. Light variable winds.Thursday: A mix of sun and low level cloud. Light northwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -10.Friday: Mainly sunny with some low level cloud. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -6, cooler at lower elevations due to an alpine temperature inversion.Saturday: Mainly cloudy. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -6 with the temperature inversion mostly dissipated.

No avalanches have been reported since November 24. Please post your observations to the Mountain Information Network here.

Days of cold temperatures have been gradually transforming about 30 cm of aging storm snow left on the surface from storms and flurries over the past couple of weeks into a layer of faceted (sugary, cohesionless) snow. At treeline, the total height of snow is between about 100 and 140 cm. At 50 to 70 cm below the surface, there is a closely stacked pair of buried persistent weak layers. The upper layer consists of surface hoar (feathery crystals) in most places, but may present as a sun crust on steep south facing slopes. The deeper layer features similar surface hoar distribution over a more widespread temperature crust. These layers have shown ongoing but variable reactivity in snowpack tests in the past week. Both surface hoar layers are thought to be widespread at treeline and may also extend into sheltered alpine features.At the base of the snowpack is a thick melt-freeze crust that formed near the end of October. Observations of reactivity at this crust have been limited, but it has acted as the failure plane in several recent large avalanches in the neighbouring South Columbias.