Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to the number and quality of field observations

An arctic high continues to dominate the weather pattern over western Canada and is not forecast to move out of the area until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. In the meantime, an above-freezing layer (AFL) of air will pass through the region between 1500 and 3000m bringing temperatures in that elevation band to as high as +5c., especially on solar aspects. Arctic air pooling in the valley bottoms will keep the temperatures well below freezing until the next storm system flushes out the cold air.

No recent avalanche activity has been reported, but previous reports were about sluffing in steep terrain on S. facing slopes in the alpine.

The snowpack is extremely variable at this time, with wind scoured North facing slopes at treeline and above. South facing slopes have wind slabs at tree line and above and may be hiding surface hoar from the previous spell of cold clear weather. Surface facetting has observed in the region as a result of the recent cold weather and clear skies, and  surface hoar has been reported building in sheltered locations. There are a number of surface hoar layers now buried in the snowpack that seem to be unreactive, with the most recent having been buried on Nov 24th. In shallow snowpack areas, especially on northern aspect, there is a weak facetted layer at the base of the snowpack. Warming temperatures and strong solar radiation will likely build a sun/temperature crust on solar aspects.  The current warm temps and solar input will create a sun/temperature crust as the snowpack cools down.