Avalanche Forecast

High -

Friday night: Flurries bringing approximately 10 cm of new snow. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Saturday: Flurries bringing approximately 5 cm of new snow. Light to moderate southwest winds. Freezing level back to valley bottom with alpine temperatures of -12. Sunday: Cloudy with sunny periods. Light southeast winds. Alpine temperatures of -12 Monday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light southwest winds. Alpine temperatures of -12

No new avalanches were reported in the region on Thursday. Two natural slab avalanches were reported in the region on Wednesday, running Size 1.5-2. The larger of these was noted to have occurred in steep, crossloaded terrain. Several natural loose dry avalanches were also observed running to Size 1.Backcountry users in the Cariboos should be aware that many parts of the region have a similar snowpack structure to Clemina Creek, where two size 2 snowmobile triggered persistent slab avalanches were reported last Saturday (see MIN report here). On Monday, another size 2 persistent slab avalanche was accidentally triggered by a skier northwest of Valemount. Triggering a large deep persistent slab avalanche is an ongoing low probability - high consequence problem that demands an extra cautious approach to terrain selection in our region. See here for a list of recent near misses in the region.Looking forward, cooling temperatures and easing winds should promote more 'right side up' conditions as snowfall continues. With that said, Friday's touchier new snow will likely remain sensitive to human triggering while persistent weaknesses in the snowpack see steadily increasing load.

Ongoing snowfall has brought 30-50 cm of new snow to the mountains since Tuesday night, and more is on the way. The new snow has been accompanied by moderate to strong southerly winds, which has promoted the formation of touchy wind slabs in lee terrain at upper elevations. The new snow has buried faceted surface snow, as well as surface hoar recently reported in sheltered areas in some parts of the region. A thin sun crust may also exist below the new snow on steep solar aspects. About 60-80cm below the surface you'll likely find the mid-February interface, which is composed of a thick rain crust up to about 1700 m, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on shaded aspects. Reports from Thursday suggested this layer became reactive at lower elevations where the rain crust is more prominent. Some lingering surface hoar layers from January are down about a metre and the weak mid-December facets are down about 1.5 metres. These deep persistent weaknesses still have the potential to react to human triggers or smaller storm slab avalanches.