Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind effect is extremely variable

MONDAY NIGHT: Clear. Alpine temperatures near -10C. Ridgetop winds moderate gusting strong from the east-northeast.TUESDAY: Sunny. Alpine temperatures near -3C. Ridgetop winds moderate occasionally gusting strong from the east-northeast.WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny. Alpine temperatures near -5C, freezing level rising to 800 m. Ridgetop winds moderate gusting strong from the northeast.THURSDAY: Sunny with cloudy periods. Alpine temperature near -2C, freezing level around 800 m. Ridgetop winds light occasionally gusting strong from the northeast.

A touchy and reactive snowpack was reported around the Shames backcountry on Sunday. MIN reports document skier-triggered wind slab avalanches size 1-1.5 on south-southeast aspects (See one report here).Several small (size 1) avalanches in adjacent terrain were triggered by skiers descending on Sunday on West to south aspects in the Alpine. On Saturday, while traversing a bench feature skiers north of Terrace remotely triggered 3 small (size 1) storm slab avalanches in steeper terrain. A helicopter also remotely triggered a larger size 2 storm slab avalanche. The Saturday avalanches occurred in similar steep terrain on west to north aspects around 1300 m and failed 30-50 cm deep on the recently buried surface hoar layer.Avalanche observations since Thursday's storm include several small (size 1-1.5) storm slab avalanches at lower elevations and some larger wind slabs (up to size 2) at higher elevations.

Around 40 cm snow over the weekend fell on a variety of surfaces from hard wind slab to cold and faceted snow. Strong outflow winds are reshaping the surface, harder wind slabs are found in exposed terrain at treeline and above with soft slab development in lee and cross-loaded features.In most areas, the new snow collectively overlies hard, previously wind affected surfaces or crust on solar aspects. In selective sheltered areas, it may overlie surface hoar or an older layer of faceted (sugary) snow.In the south of the region, the remainder of the snowpack is well-settled. Around Bear Pass and in the north of the region, you may find two weak layers of surface hoar buried between 50 and 100 cm. The base of the snowpack may also be composed of weak and sugary faceted snow.