Avalanche Forecast

Low - Due to the number of field observations

Thursday: Dry and bright. Very cold - treeline temperatures around -25 C. Winds light from the east. Friday: A few flurries, with only minimal accumulation. Winds increasing to 20-30 km/hr at ridgetop from the southeast. Temperatures remaining very cold. Saturday: 2 cm new snow expected. Winds 20-30 km/hr from the southeast. Warming to a balmy -22 C.

No recent avalanche observations have been reported.

Up to 30 cm of recent storm snow has buried old snow surfaces including surface hoar and old, stiff wind slabs. The cold temperatures will have promoted surface faceting, which probably means the top layer of snow is soft in most places. Treeline snow depths around Elkford are only around 60 cm; I suspect they are slightly higher in places like the Flathead, but generally conditions are lean. Threshold snow depths for avalanches have been exceeded in the alpine and at treeline, but not below treeline. In shallow areas, the snowpack is most likely facetted (sugary) throughout, and any crusts have probably broken down already. In deeper areas, you can probably find the mid-November crust buried under half a metre or so of snow.