Avalanche Forecast

Good

Thursday night and Friday:  The ridge of high pressure that has been blocking the weather patterns is beginning to weaken and an upper trough will move in during the day. Cloudy skies and light flurries are expected for the day with the strong winds from the Northwest and cooler more seasonal temperatures in the alpine (-8 C).Saturday: A surface ridge centered over the kootenay region should bring a bit of a clearing with few to scattered skies and valley clouds and increasing clouds during the day, no precipitation forecasted and moderate Westerly winds. Temperatures could warm up slightly in the alpine.Sunday: A front should move across the region bringing light precipitation with light Southwesterly winds and cooler temperatures.

Some sluffing  (loose dry avalanches) in steep terrain was triggered by cornice fall and skiers.

A generally settled upper snowpack overlies two or more buried crusts. The December crust is found 70-140 cm below the surface and the November crust/facet layer is near the base of the snowpack. Recent snowpack tests have shown little reactivity on these layers, apart from in the Flathead Range near Fernie, where there is a lingering possibility of triggering a deep avalanche in specific thin, rocky snowpack areas. Check out the forecaster's blog for more discussion on this.