Winter continues! Expect stormy weather with freezing levels around 2000 metres.
Weather Forecast
Overnight: Freezing level remaining close to 2000 metres with moderate southerly winds and a chance of flurries. Monday: 3-5 cm of new snow with moderate west winds and daytime freezing up to 2000 metres. Tuesday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of broken skies and moderate southwest winds. Expect freezing levels to remain near 2000 metres. Wednesday: Mostly sunny with moderate westerly winds and daytime freezing up to 2400 metres.
Avalanche Summary
Loose wet avalanches up to size 1.5 were reported from the Fernie area on Sunday. These avalanches occurred on steep southeast thru southwest aspects. Expect cornices to continue to be a concern for natural activity. Cornices are large and may be fragile due to the changing temperatures and diurnal freeze/thaw cycle.
Snowpack Summary
A couple of cm of new snow on Sunday morning with a good freeze has resulted in dry snow on northerly aspects above 1800 metres. The near surface crust was reported to have broken down on all but north aspects in the alpine. The snowpack is generally well settled and continues to transition into a spring melt/freeze regime. Below 1300m the snowpack may be moist or wet through its entire thickness. In the alpine cornices continue to grow large and ever more overhanging.
Problems
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.