Avalanche Forecast

High

A strong temperature inversion persist with an above freezing layer in the alpine. Valley cloud will linger bellow 1500 to 1800m. TUESDAY: sunny in the alpine, a freezing level of 3500m, light southwesterly winds. WEDNESDAY: sunny with scattered clouds with a possibility of light rain showers in the afternoon, a freezing level of 2800m, moderate westerly winds. THURSDAY: mainly cloudy, light westerly winds, freezing level of 2500m.

Near Rossland, three size 1.5, skier triggered avalanches were reported over the weekend that occurred in wind loaded features between 1800m and 1900m on the late January surface hoar.

Warm temperatures are encouraging the rapid settlement of the upper snow pack and moist snow can be found on solar aspects. A thin melt freeze crust may form on the surface overnight. Increasingly hard to trigger wind slabs can be found at ridgeline. A layer of surface hoar has been observed around Rosland and in the Bonnington Range, buried down 40cm, in open areas at and just below treeline. In most other parts of the region a rain crust can be found at this same depth that extends up as high as 2100m. Below this, a thick slab rests on a layer of surface hoar that was buried earlier in January and is now down 80-130 cm. This layer remains a concern in at and bellow treeline, producing sudden planar fractures in snowpack tests under moderate to heavy loads. A rain crust from early December sits near the base of the snowpack.