Avalanche Forecast

Friday night: Mainly cloudy isolated flurries and a trace of new snow to higher elevations. Light southwest winds, potentially strong in the alpine.

Saturday: Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries bringing less than 5 cm of new snow, continuing overnight. Light to moderate southwest winds, potentially strong in the alpine. Alpine high temperatures around -4 with freezing levels to 1500 metres.

Sunday: Cloudy with scattered flurries and up to 5 cm of new snow, continuing overnight. Light to moderate southwest winds, potentially strong in the alpine. Alpine high temperatures around -4 with freezing levels to 1500 metres.

Monday: Cloudy with flurries bringing about 5 cm of new snow, continuing overnight. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -4.

A large (size 2) glide slab occurred overnight and was observed on Friday morning on a lower elevation slope on Mt. Fernie. It may have been coaxed into action by overnight rainfall. This serves as a great reminder to avoid slopes with glide cracks on them at all times. They are inherently unstable and can release at any time.

Looking forward, cooling temperatures are expected to help lock down the snowpack in mid-elevation areas that have been wetted by rain. Light forecast snow amounts are not expected to be sufficient to form a new wind slab problem beyond isolated small slabs in leeward terrain features.

Light new snow amounts have been accumulating over wind affected surfaces in the alpine while light rain has wet the snow surface below about 1700 metres. Forecast light flurries will add a bit of dry snow to this mix at all but lower elevations in the coming days.

Around 30 to 50 cm of snow sits above a layer of sugary faceted grains that were buried in mid-February. In some areas, there may be an old layer of feathery surface hoar or facets from late January down 50 to 80 cm deep. There have been no reported avalanches on either of these layers in the region in the last 10 days. Forecast cooling temperatures are expected to further decrease the likelihood of avalanches at these interfaces.

• Be alert to conditions that change with elevation.
• Small avalanches can have serious consequences in extreme terrain. Carefully evaluate your line for wind slab hazard before you commit to it.
• Watch for unstable snow on specific terrain features, especially when the snow is moist or wet.