Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Timing of incoming weather is uncertain on Friday

Friday: Moderate to heavy snowfall starting on Friday afternoon. 10-15cm, with 20cm possible on western slopes. Freezing level at valley bottom for most of the day. Winds increasing to strong westerlies by afternoon.Saturday: Snow continuing, with a further 10-20cm expected (most in the southern part of the region and on western slopes). Freezing level rising briefly to around 1000m on Saturday morning. Westerly winds.Sunday: Light snow. Freezing level valley floor.

Explosives testing triggered many size 1-3.5 slabs in the central Purcells. All of the observed avalanches failed within the storm snow, with the exception of a couple of avalanches started by large cornices dropping onto the slope. In these cases, one failed at ground/glacier ice and one on a facet layer.

Recent storm snow is settling slowly with cold temperatures. Winds have recently created slabs in exposed features. The mid-December surface hoar/facet persistent weakness, now down around 50cm on the eastern side of the range and as deep as 180cm on the western side, is still causing operators concern, especially in shallow snowpack areas. Recent snowpack tests show moderate to hard, sudden planar results on this layer. The consequences of a failure on this layer would be large. Facets and depth hoar exist at the base of the snowpack.