Purcells

Avoid all avalanche terrain.

Buried weak layers are expected to become active with rising freezing levels and could run to the valley bottom.

Several wet loose natural avalanches occurred near Invermere. Information is limited but a natural cycle is expected to be ongoing.

There have been many large (size 2) to very large (size 4) rider-triggered avalanches on deeply buried weak layers in the Purcells this week. Mainly in the alpine but with whumpfing reported below treeline as well.

The upper snowpack has a couple of centimetres of heavy new snow on about 30 cm of settled snow with facets beneath it.

The mid-snowpack has a couple of crusts and is generally faceted and weak above and below them.

At the base of the snowpack, weak faceted grains and depth hoar are present.

Sunday Night

Mostly cloudy with no snow, southwest alpine wind 20 to 40 km/h, treeline temperature 0 °C, freezing level 2000 m.

Monday

Mostly cloudy with no new snow, southwest alpine wind 25 to 35 km/h, treeline temperature 2 °C, freezing level 3000 m.

Tuesday

A mix of sun and cloud with a trace of snow, southwest alpine wind 30 to 50 km/h, treeline temperature 5 °C, freezing level 2500 m.

Wednesday

Mostly cloudy with a trace of snow, south alpine wind 30 to 50 km/h, treeline temperature 3 °C, freezing level 2500 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.
• Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.
• The more the snow feels like a slurpy, the more likely loose wet avalanches will become.