Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain

MONDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods, light west winds, alpine temperatures around -17 C.TUESDAY: Cloudy with flurries starting in the afternoon, southwest winds with moderate gusts, alpine temperatures around -15 C.WEDNESDAY: 5-10 cm of new snow, moderate southwest winds, alpine temperatures around -10 C.

Recent avalanche reports in the region are limited to size 1 wind slabs in the alpine and fast moving sluffs. However, many parts of the region have a similar snowpack structure to Clemina Creek, where two size 2 snowmobile triggered persistent slab avalanches were reported on Saturday (see MIN report here). Triggering a large deep persistent slab avalanche is a low probability - high consequence scenario that warrants an extra cautious approach to terrain. See here for a list of recent near misses in the Cariboos and North Rockies.

A recent dusting of new snow came with moderate winds that has likely left thin reactive winds slabs at higher elevations. Light flurries over the past week have delivered a total of 15-30 cm of low density snow, while sun crusts have formed on steep south slopes. The recent snow has buried the mid-February interface, which is composed of a thick rain crust up to about 1700 m, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on shaded aspects. Some lingering surface hoar layers from January are down about a metre and the weak facets buried in mid-December are down about 1.5 metres. These deep persistent weaknesses still have the potential to be reactive with human triggers.