Avalanche Forecast

Friday night: Cloudy with easing flurries finishing with about 5 cm of new snow. Light southwest winds.

Saturday: Cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light south winds. Alpine high temperatures around -4 with freezing levels to 1300 metres.

Sunday: Cloudy with light flurries beginning in the afternoon. Light southeast winds, becoming moderate or strong at ridgetop. Alpine high temperatures around -4.

Monday: Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing up to 5 cm of new snow. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -5.

There were numerous reports on Thursday of natural and human triggered avalanches. Most of these were size 1-2 storm and wind slab avalanches. All aspects and elevations were represented in reports, with some emphasis on north aspects for higher elevation releases. Similar activity was likely throughout the day on Friday.

Looking forward, our recent snow should begin to form a more reliable bond with the old surface while areas of unstable snow become increasingly focused toward wind loaded pockets at higher elevations.

Regular snowfall over the past week brought about 40-60 cm of snow to the region. Elevated, mainly south winds over the same period redistributed much of this snow in the alpine and upper treeline while warm temperatures promoted slab formation with each snowfall as well as fairly quick transitions to settlement and bonding of the new snow. Surface snow is now moist or wet from warm temperatures, rain, or wet flurries up to at least 1500 metres.

A layer of surface hoar may still be found roughly 80-120 cm deep in the Selkirks and 120-160 cm deep in the Monashees. This layer exists primarily at treeline and below treeline and through it appears to be gaining strength, it could still be triggered by a large load in some areas.

• Avoid freshly wind loaded terrain features.
• Be alert to conditions that change with elevation, aspect and exposure to wind.