Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain on Wednesday

Tuesday: Trace of new snow. Ridgetop winds 20-55km/hr from the West. Freezing levels may rise to 800m. Treeline temperatures near -5. Wednesday: Snow amounts near 5cms. Ridgetop winds 30-40km/hr from the NW. Freezing levels near 800m dropping to valley bottom. Thursday: A ridge will bring warmer air, elevating freezing levels up to 1500m. The region looks to remain dry well into Saturday.

Current observations include one large size 3.5 slab avalanche that occurred west of Invermere at 2300m on a SE-SW aspect, 600m wide, running 1300m in length, and the slab pulled out to the ground basal layers. A few smaller (size 2) avalanches were reported on NE-E aspects above 2300m on an old failure plane within the snowpack. Older, yet a reminder is the control work in the Dogtooths that produced avalanches running to ground on basal facets & depth hoar in high elevation terrain with light loads on Jan. 27th. Further south that day, large loads produced very little results at mid elevations with large loads.

The Purcell's are one of the more complex & variable snow packs in the province right now.The storm over the weekend delivered 20 - 40 cm of snow to the region with moderate gusting strong winds out of the SW, S & a bit of SE. This snow fell on a snow pack that is for the most part, pretty well settled.There are a few exceptions though:The Jan. 13th SH/FC combo is still reactive in ski hill testing, but this needs to be taken with a grain of salt as this snowpack is a bit artificial when compared to a true backcountry uncontrolled snowpack. Regardless, I feel like we can't take our eyes off this layer just yet, remember, it's only two weeks old.It sounds like there is a lot of strong snow over the mid December facet layer which is buried approx. 80 cm on the east side and 200+ cm on the west side. This layer seems to have more energy in the Purcells than any other region in the province. On Jan. 28th a skier remotely triggered a size 3 avalanche & this layer was suspected as the weakness.There are basal facets at the ground which are a concern, especially on shady high elevation slopes. Snowpack depths at 2000m sit near 2m deep.