Avalanche Forecast

Moderate -

Tuesday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow, continuing overnight. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -7.Wednesday: Mainly cloudy with continuing scattered flurries and a trace to 5 cm of new snow, continuing overnight. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Freezing level rising to 1600 metres with alpine high temperatures of -3.Thursday: A mix of sun and cloud with lingering isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Moderate southwest winds. Freezing level returning to valley bottom with alpine high temperatures of -9.

Reports from Saturday showed explosives control in the Castle area producing several Size 2-2.5 storm slabs around 40 cm deep. Ski cutting in the same area produced numerous smaller (Size 1) releases also confined to the recent storm snow.Looking forward, expect ongoing strong winds to promote lee loading as well as slab formation and reactivity even as snowfall tapers off.

Up to 40 cm of new snow from recent stormy weather has buried both a new layer of feathery surface hoar in sheltered areas as well as sun crust on solar aspects. Moderate to strong winds have been scouring away the new snow on southwest aspects while continuously loading and building wind slabs in lee areas. Beneath the new snow, Previous southwest winds formed wind slabs that are now buried in lee terrain at higher elevations.Down about 60-80 cm, weak layer of feathery surface hoar crystals and/or sun crust from mid-December is found at treeline and below treeline elevations. Deeper in the snowpack, another weak early-season layer of rain crust and sugary facets exists. This deeper layer is the most concerning persistent weakness in the South Rockies. It is expected to be particularly sensitive to triggering in variable-depth snowpack areas in the alpine. Slabs may still fail on these layers under the weight of a person, a machine, or large wind slab release. Although the snowpack structure is variable across the region, these persistent slab problems are generally widespread. Snowpack depths are across the region are similarly variable, but typically shallower in the east.