Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain on Tuesday

Moderate to strong westerly winds overnight with 2-3 cm of new snow and freezing levels down to valley bottoms. Some convective flurries expected during the day Tuesday with moderate westerly winds and freezing levels rising up to 1500 metres. A good freeze is expected on Wednesday morning before freezing levels climb up to 1500 metres during the day under mostly clear skies and light winds. Clouding over Wednesday night with 5-8 cm expected by Thursday morning with moderate northeast winds. A mix of sun and cloud on Thursday with light winds.

On Monday our field team in the Crown Mtn area observed a natural cornice fall size 2.0 that did not release a slab on the steep slope below. The field team also observed the debris from a previous cornice fall that probably released over the weekend. On Saturday a few natural cornice failures to size 2 were observed in extreme terrain. On Friday a few different very large avalanches (to size 3.5) were observed that failed naturally on southerly facing alpine features. These avalanches were likely triggered by falling chunks of cornice impacting thin snowpack areas in the far north of the region. Debris ran down the track well into the below treeline vegetation band.

At 1920 metres in the Crown Mtn area there was 17 cm of new snow above a breakable 2 cm crust. Below the crust there was moist snow at this elevation. We estimate the the crust extends up to about 2000 metres. Strong southwest winds have created widespread wind slabs at treeline and above. Deeper in the snowpack, recent tests gave very easy sudden collapse results down 80 cm on a southeast aspect at 1850 m on the deep persistent facet/crust weakness that was buried early December. Watch this weakness with extreme warming from sun-exposure, or warming/loading from rain. Cornices are also reported to be huge and weak. Check out the latest SoRo field team video on Instagram: @avcansouthrockies