Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

Explosive control has consistently produced small to large (size 1.5 to 2.5) slab avalanches across the region over the past few days. These avalanches all occurred above 2200 m and have failed on both surface hoar and facet layers. Neighboring regions to the north and west have seen human-triggered avalanches on the same surface hoar layer.

A few small (size 1) wind slab and loose avalanches were observed on Wednesday.

A dusting of new snow buried a recently formed surface hoar layer, sun crust, and wind-affected snow. A prominent rain crust is found 30 to 50 cm deep and has been reported to extend as high as 2300 m around Invermere and 2000 m around Golden. A layer of surface hoar is also found at this depth and is a particular concern in areas without a thick crust. The bottom of the snowpack contains large weak snow grains and in some places a hard crust near the ground. Typical snowpack depths at treeline are 60 to 110 cm, and taper rapidly below treeline.

Thursday Night

Mostly cloudy with 1 to 2 cm of snow, alpine wind west 20 km/h, treeline temperature -10 °C.

Friday

Mix of sun and cloud with no precipitation, alpine wind southwest 40 km/h, treeline temperature -6 °C.

Mix of sun and cloud with 1 to 2 cm of snow, alpine wind southwest 40 to 60 km/h, treeline temperature -4 °C with a possible alpine temperature inversion.

Mix of sun and cloud with no precipitation, alpine wind southwest 10 km/h, treeline temperature -6 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Use conservative route selection and resist venturing out into complex terrain.
• Use ridges or ribs to avoid areas of wind loaded snow.
• Surface hoar distribution is highly variable. Avoid generalizing your observations.
• Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.