Avalanche Forecast

Moderate -

FRIDAY NIGHT: Mainly cloudy / Alpine temperature: Low -4C / Light southwest ridge wind / Freezing level 500mSATURDAY: Cloudy with flurries / Accumulation: trace to 5cm / Alpine temperature: High -3C / Light south-southwest ridge wind / Freezing level 1100mSUNDAY: Snow / Accumulation: 20-55cm / Alpine temperature: High 0C / Moderate south ridge wind / Freezing level 1600mMONDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries / Accumulation: up to 5cm / Alpine temperature: High -5C / Light to Moderate south ridge wind / Freezing level 1000m

Solar input has produced small (size 1) loose snow avalanches on steep south-facing features.Two recent very large (size 3) avalanches were observed in the Joffre Lakes area on Saturday. These released from the high alpine northeast and northwest faces of Mt. Joffre and Mt. Matier, respectively. The evidence of the Mt. Matier slide features several 'step downs' as the slide progressively triggered deeper layers of the snowpack, all the way down to previous summer snow cover. Both slides likely released during last week's storm. A more recent report details a similar large release from the storm on Face mountain in the Hurley Pass area.

Days of cool, clear weather have grown a widespread new layer of feathery surface hoar crystals on the surface. Recent sunshine has likely replaced this surface hoar with a new sun crust on steeper sun exposed aspects. Beneath the surface, the cold has also been transforming storm snow from last week into a layer of faceted (sugary) snow. This layer of storm snow increases in depth from about 5-10 cm at 1600-2000 m, where it sits above a rain crust, to around 20 cm in the alpine above 2000 m, where the crust may not be present. Here, the storm snow is suspected to be bonding well to a settled mid snowpack.Above 2000 m, alpine snowpack depths are approaching 175 cm, but recent reports suggest about half these depths around treeline in the south of the region. A crust/facet interface can be found near the ground in the alpine, but this may again be most prevalent in the north of the region. Although we have few observations of reactivity at this layer, it was a failure plane in several very large avalanches during last week's storm. It is thought that there is insufficient snow for avalanches below 1500 m, making for generally rugged travel conditions throughout the region.