Avalanche Forecast

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A ridge of high of pressure is forecast to keep the region cold and dry for the next several days. On Tuesday, mostly sunny conditions are expected with light to moderate northeast wind in the alpine and treeline temperatures around -15C. Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to be sunny with light northeast wind in the alpine and treeline temperatures remaining around -15C.

On Sunday, a natural size 1.5 wind slab avalanche was reported near Invermere on a northwest aspect at 2600 m elevation which had a slab thickness of 50 cm. In the Dogtooth, a few small natural wind slab avalanches were observed which were 5-15 cm thick. A MIN report from the Quartz Creek area shows a sledder triggered size 2 wind slab avalanche. Click here for more details. A skier also triggered a size 1 wind slab avalanche on an east aspect at 2400 m elevation which had a slab thickness of 30 cm. On Saturday, a MIN report from south of Panorama describes a snowmobile triggered avalanche on a south aspect with a slab thickness of 20-30 cm. Click here for more details. A skier also triggered a size 1 wind slab avalanche on a north aspect at 2300 m elevation. The slab was 15-20 cm thick.On Tuesday, recently formed wind slabs are expected to remain reactive to human triggering. Winds have recently switched from south to north and wind slabs should be expected on all aspects.

Recent strong shifting winds have formed wind slabs on a variety of aspects in wind exposed terrain. A new sun crust is being reported on steep solar aspects. The mid-January interface is now down 20-50 cm and consists of buried surface hoar in sheltered areas, old wind slabs in exposed terrain, and/or widespread faceted old snow. The interface has generally stabilized but isolated weaknesses may still exist where buried surface hoar is preserved. The mid-December surface hoar/facet weakness from is down 50-100 cm and is generally considered dormant. However, a few storm slab and wind slab avalanches stepped down to this layer last week in isolated areas. This layer remains an isolated concern for shallow snowpack areas where the weakness is closer to the snow surface.