Avalanche Forecast

Good - -1

A ridge of high pressure will continue to keep the region dry, and sunny through Tuesday. Ridgetop winds are light from the SE. Freezing levels near 1100m dropping to valley bottom overnight. The pattern will start to change on Wednesday afternoon. Light snow amounts are expected with freezing levels near 1200m. Alpine temperatures could drop to -9, and treeline temps may hover near -6. Light snow amounts may spread across the region on Thursday with freezing levels possibly reaching 1500m.

One notable size 2 skier triggered avalanche occurred outside the ski area boundary near Whitewater. This was on a North aspect @1985m. The crown depth was reportedly 40-60cms, 50 wide and running 150m down slope. 2 skiers were involved, and sustained no injuries. Other observations from around the region includes small surface sluffing from steep North facing aspects.

Temperatures dropped below freezing again Sunday night, and persisted through the day at higher elevations. Crusts have been forming due to the melt and freeze cycle for the past few days. There is still dry snow on northerly aspects at higher elevations. Sun crusts have developed on steep solar aspects. Pin-wheeling and other signs of moist snow have been observed on solar aspects at and above treeline At treeline and below treeline surface faceting and surface hoar growth (up to 15mm) are forming; especially on shady aspects in sheltered locations. This may become future layers of concern once buried. Steep planar slopes with shallow snowpacks are the most suspect. The recent storm snow layer is about 30-50 cm thick and is quite variable across the region. There are a couple of thin crusts buried below the storm snow that have been producing moderate to hard shears in tests. Some areas are still getting sudden planar shears on the mid-December surface hoar layer.