Avalanche Forecast

High -

FRIDAY: Mainly cloudy with the possibility of isolated flurries, light south wind and freezing level around 1300m.SATURDAY: Mainly cloudy with the possibility of isolated flurries, light south wind and freezing level dropping to around 1000m.SUNDAY: Flurries with another 5-10 cm possible, moderate southerly winds and freezing levels remaining around 1000m.

Reports from Wednesday include widespread natural and human-triggered 20-40 cm thick Size 1-2 storm slab avalanches. Expect continued natural wind and storm slab avalanche activity with heavy loading from snow and wind, and lingering human-triggered avalanche potential for the forecast period. Also, expect deeper persistent weaknesses to become more reactive with continued snow and wind-loading and warm temperatures.

By Thursday morning another 15-25 cm added the previous 15-25 cm of fresh snow accompanied by moderate to strong southerly winds. This has resulted in touchy storm and wind slabs bonding poorly to the previous snow surface that includes facets and large surface hoar on sheltered slopes and/or a sun crust on steep sun-exposed aspects, as well as wind-affected surfaces (e.g. hard wind slab, sastrugi, scoured crust, etc.) in exposed areas. The mid-December surface hoar/ facet layer is now likely down 50-90 cm and may become reactive again with continued loading and warming. In thin rocky areas, particularly in the Rossland range, recent reports include easy sudden collapse snowpack test results on facets down 120-150 cm near the ground. This deep persistent weakness may also become reactive with continued loading and warming.