Avalanche Forecast

Good - -1

A weakening cold front associated with the big weekend storm slides across the region Monday night persisting into Tuesday. The Kootenay Boundary region will receive light precipitation out of the system; I'm not expecting more than 5 cm by the end of the day Tuesday. A ridge of high pressure builds in Tuesday afternoon bringing dry conditions and lowering freezing levels down to valley bottom by Tuesday evening. Moderate to strong winds will be blowing out of the NW Tuesday in exposed locations. Expect a daytime high of -5 with an overnight low of -9 @ 1500m. Wednesday looks to be cool and dry with no precipitation expected.

A size 1.5 skier accidental was reported Sunday from a thin snowpack zone where the total HS is around 100 cm. The skier triggered the avalanche on the mid December surface hoar (SH) layer. The SH was up to 15mm in size & very well preserved. All other observations were limited to sluffing in steep terrain.

Previously gusty winds created wind slabs that can be found in wind exposed locations in both the treeline & alpine elevation bands. A thin melt/freeze crust can be found as high as 1900m & is now buried a few cm's below the surface. Compression tests have been producing sudden results on both the late December surface hoar down 35-50 cm & the mid-December surface hoar, down 70-105 cm. Test profiles and continued whoomphing suggest that avalanches associated with these persistent weakness's have the potential to propagate over large areas. Basal facets and depth hoar remain a concern in shallow rocky areas.