Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to variable snowpack conditions

Overnight and Saturday: Light to locally moderate snowfall on Friday night with clearing on Saturday / moderate southwest winds becoming light and northwest with clearing / Freezing level at 500mSunday: Light snowfall / light northwest winds / Freezing level at surfaceMonday: Light snowfall / light west winds / Freezing level at 700m

No avalanches were reported from the region on Friday. This may speak more to a lack of observations than actual avalanche activity.

Snowfall amounts have been mostly moderate over the past week with significantly greater accumulations occurring in the Kootenay Pass area where well over a metre of snow has fallen since the end of November. Current surfaces most likely include varying amounts of fairly low density storm snow which override windslabs which formed earlier in the week.Below the recent storm snow is a layer of surface hoar that was buried at the end of November. This layer continues to be reactive.At the base of the snowpack sits the early November rain crust. This layer seems most likely to be found in deeper snowpack areas at higher elevations. I'm not aware of any activity on this layer in the Kootenay Boundary region; however, deep and destructive releases have been observed in the South Columbia region (directly to the north). This indicates to me that, where it exists, this layer may now be primed for triggering.There are significant variations in snowpack structure from one drainage to another. In short, digging down and making your own observations will be critical to safe slope selection. Any observations from the field are welcome at forecaster@avalanche.ca.