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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 16th, 2023–Dec 17th, 2023

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Kootenay Boundary, Bonnington, Grohman, Kootenay Pass, Norns, Rossland, South Okanagan, Ymir, Crawford, Moyie, St. Mary.

Lots of early season hazards exist due to a thin snowpack. Read our Forecasters' Blog for more details on a persistent slab problem found in the region.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

There is no recent avalanche activity to report.

Snowpack Summary

A dusting of new snow buried a recently formed surface hoar layer and sun crust. A prominent rain crust is found 30 to 60 cm deep. While the dry snow above the crust is bonding well, some areas have large weak surface hoar crystals beneath the crust. It may be possible to trigger this surface hoar layer in areas where the crust is thinner and less supportive, with higher-elevation terrain being the most suspect. Typical snowpack depths at treeline are 70 to 110 cm, and taper rapidly below treeline.

Weather Summary

Friday Night

Partly cloudy with no precipitation, alpine wind southwest 20-30 km/h, treeline temperature -6 °C.

Saturday

Mix of sun and cloud with no precipitation, alpine wind southwest and west 15-25 km/h, treeline temperature -1 °C.

Monday

Mix of sun and cloud with no precipitation, alpine wind southwest 15-30 km/h, treeline temperature -3 °C with a possible temperature inversion.

Tuesday

Cloudy with 3-5 cm of snow, alpine wind south 20-40 km/h, treeline temperature -1°C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Carefully evaluate bigger terrain features on an individual basis before committing to them.
  • Surface hoar distribution is highly variable. Avoid generalizing your observations.
  • Early season avalanches at any elevation have the potential to be particularly dangerous due to obstacles that are exposed or just below the surface.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.